1.014 - Abraham

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object:1.014 - Abraham
class:chapter
book class:Quran
author class:Muhammad
subject class:Islam
translator class:Talal Itani

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.

1. Alif, Lam, Ra. A Scripture that We revealed to you, that you may bring humanity from darkness to light—with the permission of their Lord—to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy.

2. God—to whom belongs what is in the heavens and the earth. And woe to the disbelievers from a severe torment.

3. Those who prefer the present life to the Hereafter, and repel from the path of God, and seek to make it crooked—these are far astray.

4. We never sent any messenger except in the language of his people, to make things clear for them. God leads astray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills. He is the Mighty, the Wise.

5. We sent Moses with Our signs: “Bring your people out of darkness into light, and remind them of the Days of God.” In that are signs for every patient and thankful person.”

6. Moses said to his people, “Remember God’s blessings upon you, as He delivered you from the people of Pharaoh, who inflicted on you terrible suffering, slaughtering your sons while sparing your daughters. In that was a serious trial from your Lord.”

7. And when your Lord proclaimed: “If you give thanks, I will grant you increase; but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is severe.”

8. And Moses said, “Even if you are ungrateful, together with everyone on earth—God is in no need, Worthy of Praise.”

9. Has not the story reached you, of those before you, the people of Noah, and Aad, and Thamood—and those after them? None knows them except God. Their messengers came to them with the clear proofs, but they tried to silence them, and said, “We reject what you are sent with, and we are in serious doubt regarding what you are calling us to.”

10. Their messengers said, “Is there any doubt about God, Maker of the heavens and the earth? He calls you to forgive you your sins, and to defer you until a stated term.” They said, “You are only humans like us; you want to turn us away from what our ancestors worshiped; so bring us a clear proof.”

11. Their messengers said to them, “We are only humans like you, but God favors whomever He wills from among His servants. We cannot possibly show you any proof, except by leave of God. In God let the faithful put their trust.”

12. “And why should we not trust in God, when He has guided us in our ways? We will persevere in the face of your persecution. And upon God the reliant should rely.”

13. Those who disbelieved said to their messengers, “We will expel you from our land, unless you return to our religion.” And their Lord inspired them: “We will destroy the wrongdoers.”

14. “And We will settle you in the land after them. That is for him who fears My Majesty, and fears My threats.”

15. And they prayed for victory, and every stubborn tyrant came to disappointment.

16. Beyond him lies Hell, and he will be given to drink putrid water.

17. He will guzzle it, but he will not swallow it. Death will come at him from every direction, but he will not die. And beyond this is relentless suffering.

18. The likeness of those who disbelieve in their Lord: their works are like ashes, in a fierce wind, on a stormy day. They have no control over anything they have earned. That is the utmost misguidance.

19. Do you not see that God created the heavens and the earth with truth? If He wills, He can do away with you, and bring a new creation.

20. And that is not difficult for God.

21. They will emerge before God, altogether. The weak will say to those who were proud, “We were your followers, can you protect us at all against God’s punishment?” They will say, “Had God guided us, we would have guided you. It is the same for us; whether we mourn, or are patient; there is no asylum for us.”

22. And Satan will say, when the issue is settled, “God has promised you the promise of truth, and I promised you, but I failed you. I had no authority over you, except that I called you, and you answered me. So do not blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid, nor can you come to my aid. I reject your associating with me in the past. The wrongdoers will have a torment most painful.”

23. But those who believed and did good deeds will be admitted into gardens beneath which rivers flow, to remain therein forever, by leave of their Lord. Their greeting therein will be: “Peace.”

24. Do you not see how God presents a parable? A good word is like a good tree—its root is firm, and its branches are in the sky.

25. It yields its fruits every season by the will of its Lord. God presents the parables to the people, so that they may reflect.

26. And the parable of a bad word is that of a bad tree—it is uprooted from the ground; it has no stability.

27. God gives firmness to those who believe, with the firm word, in this life, and in the Hereafter. And God leads the wicked astray. God does whatever He wills.

28. Have you not seen those who exchanged the blessing of God with blasphemy, and landed their people into the house of perdition?

29. Hell—they will roast in it. What a miserable settlement.

30. And they set up rivals to God, in order to lead away from His path. Say, “Enjoy yourselves; your destination is the Fire.”

31. Tell My servants who have believed to perform the prayers, and to give from what We have given them, secretly and publicly, before a Day comes in which there is neither trading nor friendship.

32. God is He Who created the heavens and the earth, and sends down water from the sky, and with it produces fruits for your sustenance. And He committed the ships to your service, sailing through the sea by His command, and He committed the rivers to your service.

33. And He committed the sun and the moon to your service, both continuously pursuing their courses, and He committed the night and the day to your service.

34. And He has given you something of all what you asked. And if you were to count God’s blessings, you would not be able to enumerate them. The human being is unfair and ungrateful.

35. Recall that Abraham said, “O my Lord, make this land peaceful, and keep me and my sons from worshiping idols.”

36. “My Lord, they have led many people astray. Whoever follows me belongs with me; and whoever disobeys me—You are Forgiving and Merciful.

37. “Our Lord, I have settled some of my offspring in a valley of no vegetation, by Your Sacred House, our Lord, so that they may perform the prayers. So make the hearts of some people incline towards them, and provide them with fruits, that they may be thankful.”

38. “Our Lord, You know what we conceal and what we reveal. And nothing is hidden from God, on earth or in the heaven.”

39. “Praise be to God, Who has given me, in my old age, Ishmael and Isaac. My Lord is the Hearer of Prayers.”

40. “My Lord, make me one who performs the prayer, and from my offspring. Our Lord, accept my supplication.”

41. “Our Lord, forgive me, and my parents, and the believers, on the Day the Reckoning takes place.”

42. Do not ever think that God is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only defers them until a Day when the sights stare.

43. Their necks outstretched, their heads upraised, their gaze unblinking, their hearts void.

44. And warn mankind of the Day when the punishment will come upon them, and the wicked will say, “Our Lord, defer us for a little while, and we will answer Your call and follow the messengers.” Did you not swear before that there will be no passing away for you?

45. And you inhabited the homes of those who wronged themselves, and it became clear to you how We dealt with them, and We cited for you the examples.

46. They planned their plans, but their plans are known to God, even if their plans can eliminate mountains.

47. Do not ever think that God will break His promise to His messengers. God is Strong, Able to Avenge.

48. On the Day when the earth is changed into another earth, and the heavens, and they will emerge before God, the One, the Irresistible.

49. On that Day, you will see the sinners bound together in chains.

50. Their garments made of tar, and the Fire covering their faces.

51. That God may repay each soul according to what it has earned. God is Quick in reckoning.

52. This is a proclamation for mankind, that they may be warned thereby, and know that He is One God, and that people of understanding may remember.

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now begins generated list of local instances, definitions, quotes, instances in chapters, wordnet info if available and instances among weblinks

OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS

SEE ALSO

AUTH

BOOKS

IN CHAPTERS TITLE

1.014_-_Abraham

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT

1.014_-_Abraham

PRIMARY CLASS

chapter

SIMILAR TITLES

DEFINITIONS

TERMS STARTING WITH

TERMS ANYWHERE

QUOTES [53 / 53 - 1500 / 3798]

KEYS (10k)

23 Abraham Maslow
7 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
5 Abraham Lincoln
3 Abraham Joshua Heschel
2 Tom Butler-Bowdon
2 Anonymous
1 Saint Leo the Great
1 Saint Justin
1 Saint Ignatius of Antioch
1 Origen
1 Joseph Campbell
1 John Scotus Eriugena
1 George Carlin
1 Daniel C Matt
1 Anthony Robbins
1 Abraham-ibn-Ezra
1 Abraham Heschel

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

793 Abraham Lincoln
125 Abraham Verghese
125 Abraham Joshua Heschel
79 Abraham Maslow
49 Daniel Abraham
26 Jay Abraham
19 Anonymous
19 Abraham H Maslow
15 Peter Abrahams
13 Abraham Polonsky
12 Matt Abraham
11 F Murray Abraham
11 Abraham Kuyper
8 Abraham Isaac Kook
5 Seth Grahame Smith
5 Karl Abraham
5 Beth Moore
5 Abraham Low
5 Abraham Kaplan
4 Tom Abrahams

1:All I have learned, I learned from books. ~ Abraham Lincoln

2:Behind the cloud the sun is still shining." ~ Abraham Lincoln,

3:We may define therapy as a search for value. ~ Abraham Maslow,

4:What shall we think of a well-adjusted slave? ~ Abraham Maslow,

5:Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

6:The test of a man is: does he bear apples? Does he bear fruit? ~ Abraham Maslow,

7:Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." ~ Abraham Lincoln,

8:Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

9:An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle and vanished. ~ Abraham Maslow,

10:What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.
~ Abraham Maslow,

11:A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

12:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ Abraham Maslow,

13:If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow,

14:Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

15:Secrecy, censorship, dishonesty, and blocking of communication threaten all the basic needs. ~ Abraham Maslow,

16:Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 8:58,

17:The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important. ~ Abraham Maslow,

18:Abraham offered to God his mortal son who did not die, and God gave up his immortal Son who died for all of us. ~ Origen,

19:All is in the One in power and the One is in all in act. ~ Abraham-ibn-Ezra, the Eternal Wisdom

20:Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
~ Abraham Heschel, [T5],

21:A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.
~ Abraham Maslow,

22:Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

23:Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

24:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all - but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

25:The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

26:Quitting smoking can be a very good test of ones character. Pass the test and you will have accomplished so much more than just get rid of one bad habit ~ Abraham Maslow,

27:Even Abraham knew God not through the letters of Scripture, which had not yet been composed, but by the revolution of the stars. ~ John Scotus Eriugena, Periphyseon III (724a),

28:In the ideal college, intrinsic education would be available to anyone who wanted it...The college would be life-long, for learning can take place all through life. ~ Abraham Maslow,

29:So Abraham called the name of that place, "The Lord will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided." ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Genesis, 22:14,

30:If you love the truth, you'll trust it - that is, you will expect it to be good, beautiful, perfect, orderly, etc., in the long run, not necessarily in the short run. ~ Abraham Maslow,

31:Obviously the most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being, is to be paid for doing that which he passionately loves to do.
~ Abraham Maslow,

32:If you treat your children at home in the same way you treat your animals in the lab, your wife will scratch your eyes out. My wife ferociously warned me against experimenting on her babies. ~ Abraham Maslow,

33:One's only rival is one's own potentialities. One's only failure is failing to live up to one's own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king. ~ Abraham Maslow,

34:Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power...Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

35:The best way to view a present problem is to give it all you've got, to study it and its nature, to perceive within it the intrinsic interrelationships, to discover the answer to the problem within the problem itself. ~ Abraham Maslow,

36:A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

37:Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power...Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art." ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, (1907-1972) a Polish-born American rabbi and mystic. Wikipedia.,

38:Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the reference everywhere to mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine…. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, What Is Man? (89),

39:I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch,

40:There is not one God for us and another for you, but he alone is God who led your fathers out of Egypt with a strong hand and a high arm. Nor have we trusted any other, for there is no other but him, in whom you also have trusted, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ~ Saint Justin,

41:Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos. ~ Abraham Maslow, 1971, p269,

42:We can consider the process of healthy growth to be a never ending series of free choice situations, confronting each individual at every point throughout his life, in which he must choose between the delights of safety and growth, dependence and independence, regression and progression, immaturity and maturity. ~ Abraham Maslow,

43:Become aware of internal, subjective, subverbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction, of conversation, of naming, etc. with the consequence that it immediately becomes possible for a certain amount of control to be exerted over these hitherto unconscious and uncontrollable processes. ~ Abraham Maslow,

44:We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities. ~ Abraham Maslow,

45:A musician must make music, an artist must paint, an poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This weed we call self-actualization....It refers to man's desire for self-fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything one is capable of becoming. ~ Abraham Maslow,

46:Abraham Maslow said that the fully realized person transcends his local group and identifies with the species. But the election of Ronald Reagan might've been the beginning of my giving up on my species. Because it was absurd. To this day it remains absurd. More than absurd, it was frightening: it represented the rise to supremacy of darkness, the ascendancy of ignorance. ~ George Carlin,

47:It looks as if there were a single ultimate goal for mankind, a far goal toward which all persons strive. This is called variously by different authors self-actualization, self-realization, integration, psychological health, individuation, autonomy, creativity, productivity, but they all agree that this amounts to realizing the potentialities of the person, that is to say, becoming fully human, everything that person can be. ~ Abraham Maslow,

48:17. Freedom to Live:The hero is the champion of things becoming, not of things become, because he is. "Before Abraham was, I AM." He does not mistake apparent changelessness in time for the permanence of Being, nor is he fearful of the next moment (or of the 'other thing'), as destroying the permanent with its change. 'Nothing retains its own form; but Nature, the greater renewer, ever makes up forms from forms. Be sure that nothing perishes in the whole universe; it does but vary and renew its form.' Thus the next moment is permitted to come to pass. ~ Joseph Campbell,

49:Raise Your Standards
Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards. When people ask me what really changed my life eight years ago, I tell them that absolutely the most important thing was changing what I demanded of myself. I wrote down all the things I would no longer accept in my life, all the things I would no longer tolerate, and all the things that I aspired to becoming.
Think of the far-reaching consequences set in motion by men and women who raised their standards and acted in accordance with them, deciding they would tolerate no less. History chronicles the inspiring examples of people like Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Albeit Einstein, Cesar Chavez, Soichiro Honda, and many others who took the magnificently powerful step of raising their standards. The same power that was available to them is available to you, if you have the courage to claim it. Changing an organization, acompany, a country-or a world-begins with the simple step of changing yourself.

STEP TWO

Change Your Limiting Beliefs ~ Anthony Robbins, How to take Immediate Control of Your Mental Emotional Physical and Financial Destiny,

50:From above to below, the sefirot depict the drama of emanation, the transition from Ein Sof to creation. In the words of Azriel of Gerona, "They constitute the process by which all things come into being and pass away." From below to above, the sefirot constitute a ladder of ascent back to the One. The union of Tif'eret and Shekhinah gives birth to the human soul, and the mystical journey begins with the awareness of this spiritual fact of life. Shekhinah is the opening to the divine: "One who enters must enter through this gate." Once inside, the sefirot are no longer an abstract theological system; they become a map of consciousness. The mystic climbs and probes, discovering dimensions of being. Spiritual and psychological wholeness is achieved by meditating on the qualities of each sefirah, by imitating and integrating the attributes of God. "When you cleave to the sefirot, the divine holy spirit enters into you, into every sensation and every movement." But the path is not easy. Divine will can be harsh: Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac in order to balance love with rigor. From the Other Side, demonic forces threaten and seduce. [The demonic is rooted in the divine]. Contemplatively and psychologically, evil must be encountered, not evaded. By knowing and withstanding the dark underside of wisdom, the spiritual seeker is refined.~ Daniel C Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, 10,

51:reading :::
Self-Help Reading List:
James Allen As a Man Thinketh (1904)
Marcus Aurelius Meditations (2nd Century)
The Bhagavad-Gita
The Bible
Robert Bly Iron John (1990)
Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy (6thC)
Alain de Botton How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997)
William Bridges Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes (1980)
David Brooks The Road to Character (2015)
Brené Brown Daring Greatly (2012)
David D Burns The New Mood Therapy (1980)
Joseph Campbell (with Bill Moyers) The Power of Myth (1988)
Richard Carlson Don't Sweat The Small Stuff (1997)
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
Deepak Chopra The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (1994)
Clayton Christensen How Will You Measure Your Life? (2012)
Paulo Coelho The Alchemist (1988)
Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989)
Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1991)
The Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler The Art of Happiness (1999)
The Dhammapada (Buddha's teachings)
Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit (2011)
Wayne Dyer Real Magic (1992)
Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance (1841)
Clarissa Pinkola Estes Women Who Run With The Wolves (1996)
Viktor Frankl Man's Search For Meaning (1959)
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography (1790)
Shakti Gawain Creative Visualization (1982)
Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence (1995)
John Gray Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (1992)
Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life (1984)
James Hillman The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling (1996)
Susan Jeffers Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway (1987)
Richard Koch The 80/20 Principle (1998)
Marie Kondo The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2014)
Ellen Langer Mindfulness: Choice and Control in Everyday Life (1989)
Lao-Tzu Tao-te Ching (The Way of Power)
Maxwell Maltz Psycho-Cybernetics (1960)
Abraham Maslow Motivation and Personality (1954)
Thomas Moore Care of the Soul (1992)
Joseph Murphy The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (1963)
Norman Vincent Peale The Power of Positive Thinking (1952)
M Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled (1990)
Anthony Robbins Awaken The Giant Within (1991)
Florence Scovell-Shinn The Game of Life and How To Play It (1923)
Martin Seligman Learned Optimism (1991)
Samuel Smiles Self-Help (1859)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin The Phenomenon of Man (1955)
Henry David Thoreau Walden (1854)
Marianne Williamson A Return To Love (1993)
~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Self-Help,

52:reading :::
50 Spiritual Classics: List of Books Covered:
Muhammad Asad - The Road To Mecca (1954)
St Augustine - Confessions (400)
Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)
Black Elk Black - Elk Speaks (1932)
Richard Maurice Bucke - Cosmic Consciousness (1901)
Fritjof Capra - The Tao of Physics (1976)
Carlos Castaneda - Journey to Ixtlan (1972)
GK Chesterton - St Francis of Assisi (1922)
Pema Chodron - The Places That Scare You (2001)
Chuang Tzu - The Book of Chuang Tzu (4th century BCE)
Ram Dass - Be Here Now (1971)
Epictetus - Enchiridion (1st century)
Mohandas Gandhi - An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth (1927)
Al-Ghazzali - The Alchemy of Happiness (1097)
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet (1923)
GI Gurdjieff - Meetings With Remarkable Men (1960)
Dag Hammarskjold - Markings (1963)
Abraham Joshua Heschel - The Sabbath (1951)
Hermann Hesse - Siddartha (1922)
Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception (1954)
William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)
Carl Gustav Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1955)
Margery Kempe - The Book of Margery Kempe (1436)
J Krishnamurti - Think On These Things (1964)
CS Lewis - The Screwtape Letters (1942)
Malcolm X - The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964)
Daniel C Matt - The Essential Kabbalah (1994)
Dan Millman - The Way of the Peaceful Warrior (1989)
W Somerset Maugham - The Razor's Edge (1944)
Thich Nhat Hanh - The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975)
Michael Newton - Journey of Souls (1994)
John O'Donohue - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom (1998)
Robert M Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)
James Redfield - The Celestine Prophecy (1994)
Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements (1997)
Helen Schucman & William Thetford - A Course in Miracles (1976)
Idries Shah - The Way of the Sufi (1968)
Starhawk - The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (1979)
Shunryu Suzuki - Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970)
Emanuel Swedenborg - Heaven and Hell (1758)
Teresa of Avila - Interior Castle (1570)
Mother Teresa - A Simple Path (1994)
Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now (1998)
Chogyam Trungpa - Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973)
Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations With God (1998)
Rick Warren - The Purpose-Driven Life (2002)
Simone Weil - Waiting For God (1979)
Ken Wilber - A Theory of Everything (2000)
Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi (1974)
Gary Zukav - The Seat of the Soul (1990)
~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Spirital Classics (2017 Edition),

53:reading :::
50 Psychology Classics: List of Books Covered:
Alfred Adler - Understanding Human Nature (1927)
Gordon Allport - The Nature of Prejudice (1954)
Albert Bandura - Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control (1997)
Gavin Becker - The Gift of Fear (1997)
Eric Berne - Games People Play (1964)
Isabel Briggs Myers - Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type (1980)
Louann Brizendine - The Female Brain (2006)
David D Burns - Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy (1980)
Susan Cain - Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (2012)
Robert Cialdini - Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (1984)
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Creativity (1997)
Carol Dweck - Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006)
Albert Ellis & Robert Harper - (1961) A Guide To Rational Living(1961)
Milton Erickson - My Voice Will Go With You (1982) by Sidney Rosen
Eric Erikson - Young Man Luther (1958)
Hans Eysenck - Dimensions of Personality (1947)
Viktor Frankl - The Will to Meaning (1969)
Anna Freud - The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936)
Sigmund Freud - The Interpretation of Dreams (1901)
Howard Gardner - Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983)
Daniel Gilbert - Stumbling on Happiness (2006)
Malcolm Gladwell - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005)
Daniel Goleman - Emotional Intelligence at Work (1998)
John M Gottman - The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work (1999)
Temple Grandin - The Autistic Brain: Helping Different Kinds of Minds Succeed (2013)
Harry Harlow - The Nature of Love (1958)
Thomas A Harris - I'm OK - You're OK (1967)
Eric Hoffer - The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951)
Karen Horney - Our Inner Conflicts (1945)
William James - Principles of Psychology (1890)
Carl Jung - The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1953)
Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
Alfred Kinsey - Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)
RD Laing - The Divided Self (1959)
Abraham Maslow - The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1970)
Stanley Milgram - Obedience To Authority (1974)
Walter Mischel - The Marshmallow Test (2014)
Leonard Mlodinow - Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior (2012)
IP Pavlov - Conditioned Reflexes (1927)
Fritz Perls - Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality (1951)
Jean Piaget - The Language and Thought of the Child (1966)
Steven Pinker - The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (2002)
VS Ramachandran - Phantoms in the Brain (1998)
Carl Rogers - On Becoming a Person (1961)
Oliver Sacks - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1970)
Barry Schwartz - The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (2004)
Martin Seligman - Authentic Happiness (2002)
BF Skinner - Beyond Freedom & Dignity (1953)
Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton & Sheila Heen - Difficult Conversations (2000)
William Styron - Darkness Visible (1990)
~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Psychology Classics,

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:We cannot escape history. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

2:What one can be, one must be! ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

3:What a man can be, he must be. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

4:I am rather inclined to silence. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

5:What is life for? Life is for you. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

6:Man is a perpetually wanting animal. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

7:The ballot is stronger than the bullet. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

8:We do what we are and we are what we do. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

9:Every really new idea looks crazy at first. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

10:I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

11:If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

12:We may define therapy as a search for value. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

13:A house divided against itself cannot stand. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

14:Public opinion in this country is everything. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

15:Almost all creativity involves purposeful play. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

16:Fear of knowing is very deeply a fear of doing. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

17:I can make more generals but horses cost money. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

18:I destroy my enemies by making them my friends. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

19:I will prepare and someday my chance will come. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

20:Love is the chain to lock a child to its parent. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

21:If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

22:Important principles may, and must, be inflexible. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

23:Suspicions which may be unjust need not be stated. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

24:A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

25:But for this book we could not know right from wrong. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

26:All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

27:It is best not to swap horses while crossing the river. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

28:True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

29:Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

30:Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

31:Truth is generally the best vindication against slander. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

32:We expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

33:I do not like that man. I need to get to know him better. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

34:If I have erred, I err in company with Abraham Lincoln. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove

35:Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

36:Marriage is neither heaven nor hell it is simply purgatory. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

37:All the strange, checkered past seems to crowd upon my mind. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

38:Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

39:The test of a man is: does he bear apples? Does he bear fruit? ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

40:A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

41:Boys will be boys as long as there are no girls in the picture. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

42:Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

43:I would rather be a little nobody, than to be a evil somebody. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

44:The chicken came first - God would look silly sitting on an egg. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

45:To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

46:Creativity is a characteristic given to all human beings at birth. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

47:There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

48:A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

49:Be sure you put your feet in the right place, and then stand firm. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

50:If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

51:Every person is, in part, &

52:I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

53:What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

54:Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

55:A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

56:If I like a thing, it just sticks after once reading it or hearing it. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

57:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

58:I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

59:Man has his future within him, dynamically alive at this present moment. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

60:Military glory - that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

61:Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then... find the way. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

62:No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

63:No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

64:Self-actualizing individuals have a genuine desire to help the human race. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

65:What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

66:I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

67:I have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from others. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

68:When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

69:Education can become a self-fulfilling activity, liberating in and of itself. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

70:He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

71:I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

72:Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

73:Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

74:It really hurts me very much to suppose that I have wronged anybody on earth. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

75:Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

76:I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

77:A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

78:In order for us to become truly happy, that which we can become, we must become. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

79:The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

80:The story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac are nowhere in any other tradition. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove

81:Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

82:Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

83:The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

84:By the fruit the tree is to be known. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

85:Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

86:Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

87:It is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln. He always steals the show. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove

88:The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

89:That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

90:All of life is education and everybody is a teacher and everybody is forever a pupil. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

91:Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

92:To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

93:We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

94:Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

95:Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

96:The struggle for today is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

97:Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

98:As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

99:Secrecy, censorship, dishonesty, and blocking of communication threaten all the basic needs. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

100:If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

101:I have always believed that a good laugh was good for both the mental and physical digestion. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

102:Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

103:My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

104:What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried? ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

105:I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

106:The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

107:In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

108:Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? - "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove

109:I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

110:No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

111:Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

112:Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

113:Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

114:The Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove

115:Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

116:When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

117:A child wants some kind of undisrupted routine or rhythm. He seems to want a predictable, orderly world. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

118:Great distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

119:I believe I shall never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

120:I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

121:I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

122:My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

123:Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

124:If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

125:It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

126:I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

127:Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

128:Abraham is trying to obey God, but not to kill. I feel that moment is one of the defining moments of Jewish faith. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove

129:In law it is a good policy never to plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

130:Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

131:Each man shall do precisely as he pleases with himself, and with all those things which exclusively concern him. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

132:Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important nonevil generators of human evil, tragedy and suffering. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

133:One cannot choose wisely for a life unless he dares to listen to himself, his own self, at each moment of his life. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

134:A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

135:We must remember that knowledge of one’s own deep nature is also simultaneously knowledge of human nature in general. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

136:Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

137:God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove

138:Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

139:Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

140:We fear to know the fearsome and unsavoury aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

141:Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

142:I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

143:That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

144:Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

145:I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

146:You don't know who to believe. Like Abraham Lincoln. He said all men were created equal. He never went to a nude beach. ~ rodney-dangerfield, @wisdomtrove

147:I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think and feel. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

148:If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

149:I would then like to know how it comes about that when each piece of a story is true, the whole story turns out to be false? ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

150:Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

151:We have got to abandon the sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

152:All I ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

153:The loss of illusions and the discovery of identity, though painful at first, can be ultimately exhilarating and strengthening. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

154:The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

155:Good psychology should include all the methodological techniques, without having loyalty to one method, one idea, or one person. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

156:If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

157:I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

158:If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

159:I am like a man so busy in letting rooms in one end of his house, that he can't stop to put out the fire that is burning the other. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

160:If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

161:We know enough at this moment to say that the God of Abraham is not only unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove

162:We must understand love; we must be able to teach it, to create it, to predict it, or else the world is lost to hostility and to suspicion. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

163:Apparently one impression we are making... is that creativeness consists of lightning striking you on the head in one great glorious moment. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

164:I'm someone who likes ploughing new ground, then walking away from it. I get bored easily. For me, the big thrill comes with the discovering. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

165:One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

166:Take advice, but not orders. Only give yourself orders. Abraham Lincoln once said, &

167:The good or healthy society would then be defined as one that permitted people's highest purposes to emerge by satisfying all their basic needs. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

168:The spiritual life is part of the human essence. It is a defining characteristic of human nature, without which human nature is not fully human. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

169:For me [Patriarchs] exist. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob exist today. They are people that you see with white beards. I have no doubt of their existence. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove

170:The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

171:I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord's side. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

172:No psychological health is possible unless this essential care of the person is fundamentally accepted, loved and respected by others and by himself. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

173:Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? A good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

174:The fact is that people are good. Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

175:Biographies, as generally written, are not only misleading but false... In most instances, they commemorate a lie and cheat posterity out of the truth. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

176:If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

177:Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

178:I am humble . I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

179:The most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being, is to be paid for doing that which he passionately loves to do. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

180:Common sense means living in the world as it is today; but creative people are people who don't want the world as it is today but want to make another world. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

181:Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

182:I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman's skillet and the man's ax-helve. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

183:I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

184:Some people have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

185:Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

186:It strikes me there is some difference between holding a man responsible for an act which he has not done, and holding him responsible for an act that he has done. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

187:He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

188:If the essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

189:I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason; I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

190:Rioting is a childish way of trying to be a man, but it takes time to rise out of the hell of hatred and frustration and accept that to be a man you don't have to riot. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

191:I do not believe it is a constitutional right to hold slaves in a Territory of the United States. I believe the decision was improperly made, and I go for reversing it. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

192:In my judgment, such of us as have never fallen victims have been spared more by the absence of appetite, than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

193:He who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

194:It would not occur to anyone to question the statement that we “need” iodine or vitamin C. I remind you that the evidence that we “need” love is of exactly the same type. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

195:Work is that which you dislike doing but perform for the sake of external rewards. At school, this takes the form of grades. In society, it means money, status, privilege. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

196:It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

197:The emotional reaction in the peak experience has a special flavor of wonder, of awe, of reverence, of humility and surrender before the experience as before something great. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

198:When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government - that is despotism. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

199:Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy, however stale these experiences may have become to others. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

200:But behaviour in the human being is sometimes a defence, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

201:Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

202:There is something so ludicrous in promises of good or threats of evil a great way off as to render the whole subject with which they are connected easily turned into ridicule. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

203:If I had to baptise a Jew, I would take him to the bridge of the Elbe, hang a stone around his neck and push him over with the words &

204:Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but, if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

205:I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

206:As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured by interest, and next no one left to borrow from&

207:Education is learning to grow, learning what to grow toward, learning what is good and bad, learning what is desirable and undesirable, learning what to choose and what not to choose. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

208:Expression and communication in the peak–experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic, as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

209:In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in that we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

210:My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh - anything but work. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

211:[T]he only thing wrong with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was that it was the South, not the North, that was fighting for a government of the people, by the people and for the people. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove

212:If you treat your children at home in the same way you treat your animals in the lab, your wife will scratch your eyes out. My wife ferociously warned me against experimenting on her babies. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

213:The job is, if we are willing to take it seriously, to help ourselves to be more perfectly what we are, to be more full, more actualizing, more realizing in fact, what we are in potentiality. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

214:If you make a determination that [story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac] is not historical, do you throw it away? I don't think we can say whether it's precisely, scientifically historical. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove

215:We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under the most perfect conditions, under conditions of great courage. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

216:I think it is possible that we may soon even define therapy as a search for values, because ultimately the search for identity is, in essence, the search for one’s own intrinsic, authentic values. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

217:What kind of guilt comes from being true to yourself but not to others? As we have seen, being true to yourself may at times intrinsically and necessarily be in conflict with being true to others. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

218:One's only rival is one's own potentialities. One's only failure is failing to live up to one's own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

219:Over hundred years ago Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. There was wide distribution of land and they didn't confiscate anyone's privately owned land... We need an industrial Homestead Act. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove

220:There's as much crookedness as you want to find. There was something Abraham Lincoln said - he'd rather trust and be disappointed than distrust and be miserable all the time. Maybe I trusted too much. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove

221:When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or the deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love, and self-esteem. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

222:I never encourage deceit, and falsehood, especially if you have got a bad memory, is the worst enemy a fellow can have. The fact is truth is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

223:Self-actualizing people have a deep feeling of identification, sympathy, and affection for human beings in general. They feel kinship and connection, as if all people were members of a single family. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

224:This play John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln holds the season's record, thus far, with a run of four evening performances and one matinee. By an odd coincidence, it ran just five performances too many. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove

225:A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

226:I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

227:Abraham Lincoln said you cannot deceive everybody all the time. Well, that’s wishful thinking. In practice, the power of human cooperation networks depends on a delicate balance between truth and fiction. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove

228:My feeling is that the concept of creativeness and the concept of the healthy, self-actualizing, fully human person seem to be coming closer and closer together, and may perhaps turn out to be the same thing. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

229:Half of the people can be part right all of the time, Some of the people can be all right part of the time. I think Abraham Lincoln said that. &

230:Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

231:If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming and crawling about from place to place can do no good. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

232:I insist, that if there is ANY THING which it is the duty of the WHOLE PEOPLE to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity, of their own liberties, and institutions. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

233:Abraham Lincoln - the spirit incarnate of those who won victory in the Civil War - was the true representative of this people, not only for his own generation, but for all time, because he was a man among men. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove

234:We are dealing with a fundamental characteristic, inherent in human nature, a potentiality given to all or most human beings at birth, which most often is lost or buried or inhibited as the person gets enculturated. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

235:It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

236:A positive self-image and healthy self-esteem is based on approval, acceptance and recognition from others; but also upon actual accomplishments, achievements and success upon the realistic self-confidence which ensues. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

237:Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

238:We know in history that great individuals have totally changed everything, whether it be Jesus Christ or Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill or Albert Einstein. I actually think every person can make a difference. ~ barbara-marx-hubbard, @wisdomtrove

239:Abraham Lincoln freed the black man. In many ways, Dr. King freed the white man. How did he accomplish this tremendous feat? Where others - white and black - preached hatred, he taught the principles of love and nonviolence. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove

240:I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any abolitionist. I have been an Old Line Whig. I have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska Bill began. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

241:Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite riddles: How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? The answer: Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove

242:I never went to school more than six months in my life, but I can say this: that among my earliest recollections, I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

243:A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe fruit at length falls into his lap. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

244:Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self-actualization and the love for the highest values. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

245:Everyone who has eyes to see can see that if the God of Abraham exists, He is an utter psychopath&

246:Human nature has been sold short... humans have a higher nature which... includes the need for meaningful work, for responsibility, for creativeness, for being fair and just, for doing what is worthwhile and for preferring to do it well. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

247:The Christian's God does not merely consist of a God who is the Author of mathematical truths and the order of the elements. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of the Christians, is a God of love and consolation. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove

248:The way to recover the meaning of life and the worthwhileness of life is to recover the power of experience, to have impulse voices from within, and to be able to hear these impulse voices from within — and make the point: This can be done. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

249:With my childhood, it's a wonder I'm not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighbourhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

250:I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

251:Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

252:All the evidence that we have indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being, and certainly in almost every new-born baby, that there is an active will toward health, an impulse towards growth, or towards the actualization. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

253:Whenever the issue can be distinctly made, and all extraneous matter thrown out, so that men can fairly see the real difference between the parties, this controversy will soon be settled, and it will be done peaceably too. There will be no war, no violence. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

254:A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the yet unsolved ones. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

255:I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

256:All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like. Let's live with hope. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove

257:Make peace with where you are. You are where you are. When you make peace with where you are you turn downstream easily. When you don't make peace with where you are you're upstream. Abraham-Hicks ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove

258:They have become strong enough to be independent of the good opinion of other people, or even of their affection. The honours, the status, the rewards, the popularity, the prestige, and the love they can bestow must have become less important than self- development and inner growth. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

259:To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church, or because, like Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his allegiance to any church, is an outrage against the liberty of conscience, which is one of the foundations of American life. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove

260:I don't want to be unjustly accused of dealing illiberally or unfairly with an adversary, either in court, or in a political canvass, or anywhere else. I would despise myself if I supposed myself ready to deal less liberally with an adversary than I was willing to be treated myself. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

261:The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side... It has revealed to us much about man's shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his psychological health. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

262:It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles - the oppression of tyranny - to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

263:I am not accustomed to the language of eulogy. I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women. But I must say, that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

264:We cannot study creativeness in an ultimate sense until we realize that practically all the definitions that we have been using of creativeness are essentially male or masculine definitions of male or masculine products. We've left out of consideration almost entirely the creativeness of women. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

265:No man can do both effective and decent work in public life unless he is a practical politician on the one hand, and a sturdy believer in Sunday-school politics on the other. He must always strive manfully for the best, and yet, like Abraham Lincoln, must often resign himself to accept the best possible. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove

266:Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove

267:We can consider the process of healthy growth to be a never-ending series of free choice situations, confronting each individual at every point throughout his life, in which he must choose between the delights of safety and growth, dependence and independence, regression and progression, immaturity and maturity. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

268:It was not to save a nation that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, nor to appease angry gods... Then why does Abraham do it? For God's sake... He does it for the sake of God because God demands proof of his faith... He was not justified by being virtuous, but by being an individual submitted to God in faith. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove

269:It is with your aid, as the people, that I think we shall be able to preserve - not the country, for the country will preserve itself, but the institutions of the country - those institutions which have made us free, intelligent and happy - the most free, the most intelligent, and the happiest people on the globe. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

270:Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

271:I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

272:You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

273:Become aware of internal, subjective, subverbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction, of conversation, of naming, etc. with the consequence that it immediately becomes possible for a certain amount of control to be exerted over these hitherto unconscious and uncontrollable processes. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

274:Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap - let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

275:Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and that race and the other race being inferior and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

276:We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

277:The great lesson from the true mystics, from the Zen monks, and now also from the Humanistic and Transpersonal psychologists – that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbours, friends, and family, in one's back yard ... To be looking elsewhere for miracles is to me a sure sign of ignorance that everything is sacred. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

278:Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so: we still shall have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

279:People with intelligence must use their intelligence, people with eyes must use their eyes, people with the capacity to love have the impulse to love and the need to love in order to feel healthy. Capacities clamor to be used, and cease in their clamor only when they are used sufficiently. That is to say, capacities are needs, and therefore are intrinsic values as well. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

280:With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan&

281:I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and cause me to tremble for safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic destroyed. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

282:The key question isn't "What fosters creativity?" But why in God's name isn't everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might not be why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle that anybody created anything. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

283:Everything is in it: the promise and the hope and the fear and the challenge and the defiance. The test is a double test: Just as God tested Abraham, Abraham tested God: "Let's see if you really want me to go ahead with it and kill my son." Then the angel says, "Do not raise your hand against the boy" [Genesis 22:12]. It was the Angel of God who says this, not God. God was embarrassed. [All laugh] ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove

284:Our self (Soul) is maya (an illusion) where it is merely individual and finite, where it considers its separateness as absolute; it is satyam (truth) where it recognizes its essence in the universal and infinite, in the Supreme Self, in paramatman (God). This is what Christ means when he says, "Before Abraham was, I am" (i.e. before Abraham was God, who is the same that is in my soul - I am That.) ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove

285:Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self- actualization. It refers to man’s desire for self-fulfilment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything one is capable of becoming. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

286:Property is the fruit of labor&

287:It looks as if there were a single ultimate goal for mankind, a far goal toward which all persons strive. This is called variously by different authors self-actualization, self-realization, integration, psychological health, individuation, autonomy, creativity, productivity, but they all agree that this amount to realizing the potentialities of the person, that is to say, becoming fully human, everything that person can be. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

288:May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants-while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove

289:Arabia was idolatrous when, six centuries after Jesus, Muhammad introduced the worship of the God of Abraham, of Ishmael, of Moses, and Jesus. The Ariyans and some other sects had disturbed the tranquility of the east by agitating the question of the nature of the Father, the son, and the Holy Ghost. Muhammad declared that there was none but one God who had no father, no son and that the trinity imported the idea of idolatry. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove

290:The person in peak-experiences feels himself, more than other times, to be the responsible, active, creating centre of his activities and of his perceptions. He feels more like a prime-mover, more self-determined (rather than caused, determined, helpless, dependent, passive, weak, bossed). He feels himself to be his own boss, fully responsible, fully volitional, with more "free-will" than at other times, master of his fate, an agent. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

291:As one studies these preconditions, one becomes saddened by the ease with which human potentiality can be destroyed or repressed, so that a fully-human person can seem like a miracle, so improbable a happening as to be awe-inspiring. And simultaneously one is heartened by the fact that self-actualizing persons do in fact exist, that they are therefore possible, that the gauntlet of dangers can be run, that the finish line can be crossed. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

292:When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

293:A person who makes full use of and exploits his talents, potentialities, and capacities. Such a person seems to be fulfilling himself and doing the best he is capable of doing. The self-actualized person must find in his life those qualities that make his living rich and rewarding. He must find meaningfulness, self-sufficiency, effortlessness, playfulness, richness, simplicity, completion, necessity, perfection, individuality, beauty, and truth. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove

294:As a nation, we began by declaring that &

295:I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

296:And we're also remembering the guiding light of our Judeo-Christian tradition. All of us here today are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sons and daughters of the same God. I believe we are bound by faith in our God, by our love for family and neighborhood, by our deep desire for a more peaceful world, and by our commitment to protect the freedom which is our legacy as Americans. These values have given a renewed sense of worth to our lives. They are infusing America with confidence and optimism that many thought we had lost. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove

297:I've long believed that one of the mainsprings of our own liberty has been the widespread ownership of property among our people and the expectation that anyone's child, even from the humblest of families, could grow up to own a business or a corporation. Thomas Jefferson dreamed of a land of small farmers, of shopowners, and merchants. Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Homestead Act that ensured that the great western prairies of America would be the realm of independent, propertyowning citizens-a mightier guarantee of freedom is difficult to imagine. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove

298:It must be particularly borne in mind, that Mahomet did not profess to set up a new religion ; but to restore that derived in the earliest times from God himself. " We follow," says the Koran, " the religion of Abraham the orthodox, who was no idolater. We believe in God and that which hath been sent down to us, and that which hath been sent down unto Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was delivered unto Moses and Jesus, and that which was delivered unto the prophets from the Lord : we make no distinction between any of them, and to God we are resigned. ~ washington-irving, @wisdomtrove

299:Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove

300:Many times when we help we do not really serve. . . . Serving is also different from fixing. One of the pioneers of the Human Potential Movement, Abraham Maslow, said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' Seeing yourself as a fixer may cause you to see brokenness everywhere, to sit in judgment of life itself. When we fix others, we may not see their hidden wholeness or trust the integrity of the life in them. Fixers trust their own expertise. When we serve, we see the unborn wholeness in others; we collaborate with it and strengthen it. Others may then be able to see their wholeness for themselves for the first time. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:things riding mules ~ Daniel Abraham,

2:amanuensis. A rapt ~ Abraham Verghese,

3:Knowledge is power. ~ Abraham Verghese,

4:This nation under God ~ Abraham Lincoln,

5:Geography is destiny. ~ Abraham Verghese,

6:I acted my heart out. ~ F Murray Abraham,

7:YOLO is swag. YOLO is me. ~ Allie Abraham,

8:Achievement has no color ~ Abraham Lincoln,

9:I'm a very proud actor. ~ F Murray Abraham,

10:Sisters of the Nigrizia ~ Abraham Verghese,

11:With Malice Towards None ~ Abraham Lincoln,

12:Envy Is Behind Flattery. ~ Abraham Verghese,

13:One operates in the now. ~ Abraham Verghese,

14:Sometimes I think of Abraham ~ Rich Mullins,

15:The will of God prevails. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

16:We cannot escape history. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

17:A Panegyric upon Abraham ~ S ren Kierkegaard,

18:Awe precedes faith. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

19:It's bad. It's damned bad. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

20:I was raised to farm work. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

21:There are no locks on hell. ~ Daniel Abraham,

22:Abraham Lincoln got shot and died, ~ Too hort,

23:Everybody likes compliment. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

24:Anxiety beclouds the future. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

25:Honor is better than honors. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

26:Shall we stop this bleeding? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

27:What one can be, one must be! ~ Abraham Maslow,

28:A house divided cannot stand. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

29:Everybody likes a compliment. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

30:Human-nature will not change. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

31:Money has no moral opinions. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

32:To be is to stand for. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

33:Everyone needed an obsession. ~ Abraham Verghese,

34:Some day I shall be President. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

35:What one can be, one must be! ~ Abraham H Maslow,

36:You are young, and I am older; ~ Abraham Lincoln,

37:And this, too, shall pass away. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

38:Have the courage to make a mistake. ~ Abraham Low,

39:My policy is to have no policy. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

40:the better angels of our nature ~ Abraham Lincoln,

41:Be excellent and party on dudes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

42:Every head should be cultivated. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

43:Every little deed counts. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

44:Fourscore and seven years ago... ~ Abraham Lincoln,

45:He has got the slows, Mr. Blair. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

46:I am not an accomplished lawyer. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

47:I want in all cases to do right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

48:Judge us not equally, Abraham ~ Seth Grahame Smith,

49:The awe of God is wisdom. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

50:Whatever you are, be a good one. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

51:Whatever уоu are, bе а good one. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

52:You cannot fail unless you quit. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

53:Your “Gloria” lives within you. ~ Abraham Verghese,

54:Experience is of particulars only. ~ Abraham Kaplan,

55:Never change horses in midstream. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

56:One is a majority if he is right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

57:Too many piglets not enough tits. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

58:What is life for? Life is for you. ~ Abraham Maslow,

59:Being points beyond itself. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

60:happened has happened, be will be ~ Abraham Verghese,

61:I am nothing, truth is everything. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

62:I can't spare this man, he fights! ~ Abraham Lincoln,

63:I never tire of reading Tom Paine. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

64:It should be a basic human right. ~ Abraham Verghese,

65:Life is hard but so very beautiful ~ Abraham Lincoln,

66:Oh, God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son" ~ Bob Dylan,

67:People are silently begging to be led. ~ Jay Abraham,

68:She won't think anything about it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

69:The Almighty has His own purposes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

70:Too big to cry too young to laugh. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

71:Everybody appreciates a compliment. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

72:I find a certain value in lightness. ~ Daniel Abraham,

73:If you love something, set it free. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

74:I walk slowly, but never backwards. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

75:Man is a perpetually wanting animal. ~ Abraham Maslow,

76:Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est! ~ Abraham Verghese,

77:Teach hope to all, despair to none. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

78:A fool with a tool is still a fool. ~ Abraham Verghese,

79:If i get 8 hours to cut a tree i'll ~ Abraham Lincoln,

80:I love parties. I love a good time. ~ F Murray Abraham,

81:Labor is the true standard of value. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

82:Nothing is stronger than gentleness. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

83:Too big to cry too young to laugh... ~ Abraham Lincoln,

84:Work, work, work, is the main thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

85:A chair that reclines is mighty fine. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

86:All action is vicarious faith. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

87:All true wisdom is found on T-shirts. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

88:I am commanded therefore I am. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

89:I believe that geography is destiny, ~ Abraham Verghese,

90:Out of his pen he was spinning gold. ~ Abraham Verghese,

91:Tell people what specific action to take. ~ Jay Abraham,

92:To lead, you must touch men's hearts. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

93:Violence begins where knowledge ends. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

94:Yesterday misspent can’t be recall’d ~ Abraham Verghese,

95:Your rights end where my nose begins. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

96:Always remember: Life is for enjoying. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

97:Fear is a belief - beliefs can be changed. ~ Abraham Low,

98:I think I stand where that man stands. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

99:No man is poor who has a Godly mother. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

100:affection for her, of the compatibility ~ Abraham Lincoln,

101:Killing the dog does not cure the bite. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

102:Make something beautiful of your life. ~ Abraham Verghese,

103:Nothing will divert me from my purpose. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

104:The ballot is stronger than the bullet. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

105:The Constitution is not a suicide pact. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

106:The uneventful day is a precious gift. ~ Abraham Verghese,

107:To be spiritual is to be amazed. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

108:Towering genius distains a beaten path. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

109:We do what we are and we are what we do. ~ Abraham Maslow,

110:Anybody will do for you, but not for me. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

111:Avoid popularity if you would have peace ~ Abraham Lincoln,

112:Freedom is the last, best hope of earth. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

113:I have a congenital aversion to failure. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

114:I will learn, the opportunity will come. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

115:No man ever got lost on a straight road. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

116:People are not evil; they are schlemiels. ~ Abraham Maslow,

117:The uneventful day was a precious gift. ~ Abraham Verghese,

118:All I have learned, I learned from books. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

119:A soul can create only when alone. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

120:Avoid popularity if you would have peace. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

121:Bad promises are better broken than kept. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

122:I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

123:I walk slowly, but I never walk backward. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

124:Knavery and flattery are blood relations. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

125:Peu importe ce que vous êtes. Soyez bons. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

126:The best armor is to keep out of range. ~ Abraham J Twerski,

127:The world has never had a good definition ~ Abraham Lincoln,

128:We crave and fear becoming truly ourselves ~ Abraham Maslow,

129:A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

130:Behind the cloud the sun is still shining. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

131:I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

132:I am busily engaged in study of the Bible. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

133:If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

134:My God! My God! What will the country say? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

135:Never let your correspondence fall behind. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

136:Prayer begins where our power ends. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

137:All that harms labor is treason to America. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

138:I am always for the man who wishes to work. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

139:I destroy my enemy if I make him my friend. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

140:Pray tell us, what's your favorite number? ~ Abraham Verghese,

141:Short is the way from need to greed. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

142:The health you enjoy is largely your choice ~ Abraham Lincoln,

143:The higher the truth, the simpler it is. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

144:We may define therapy as a search for value. ~ Abraham Maslow,

145:What seems to be a stone is a drama. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

146:A house divided against itself cannot stand. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

147:…but let us judge not that we be not judged. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

148:Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

149:Care for him who shall have borne the battle ~ Abraham Lincoln,

150:is … clean living will kill you, my friend. ~ Abraham Verghese,

151:Most people are as happy as they want to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

152:No one ever succeeds without the help of others. ~ Jay Abraham,

153:Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

154:The most altruistic man is the most selfish. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

155:The name of Abraham Lincoln is imperishable. ~ Matthew Simpson,

156:Time...which is eternity in disguise. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

157:We may define therapy as a search for value. ~ Abraham Maslow,

158:We worship God through our questions. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

159:What shall we think of a well-adjusted slave? ~ Abraham Maslow,

160:Writing is the great invention of the world. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

161:Destroy your enemy by making him your friend. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

162:Public opinion in this country is everything. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

163:Self-respect is the root of discipline ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

164:To say a sheep has 5 legs doesn't make it so. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

165:What do you mean "gangsters"? It's business. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

166:What shall we think of a well-adjusted slave? ~ Abraham Maslow,

167:You can't help the poor by being one of them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

168:All creation is a mine, and every man a miner. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

169:Don't swap horses in the middle of the stream. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

170:Fear of knowing is very deeply a fear of doing. ~ Abraham Maslow,

171:He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God. ~ Abraham Kuyper,

172:History is not history unless it is the truth. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

173:If you have never failed you have never lived. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

174:Let us strive on to finish the work we are in. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

175:People are just as happy as they choose to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

176:Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

177:The difficulty is capturing surprise on film. ~ F Murray Abraham,

178:Think of strangers as friends you not met yet. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

179:Well why not a technology of joy, of happiness? ~ Abraham Maslow,

180:Whatever you are, be a good one. —ABRAHAM LINCOLN ~ Mark Sanborn,

181:Wisdom is to the soul as food is to the body. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra,

182:You cannot have the right to do what is wrong! ~ Abraham Lincoln,

183:As our case is new, we must think and act anew. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

184:Being the first born gives you great patience. ~ Abraham Verghese,

185:Few are guilty, but all are responsible. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

186:Friendship is the start for what you call love. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

187:Investment in knowledge pays the best interest. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

188:it the bloody-brinjal-and-bugger-all. Which is ~ Abraham Verghese,

189:Mercy’s information about Abraham’s broken finger. ~ A J Scudiere,

190:Self-respect is the fruit of discipline. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

191:With malice towards none; with charity for all. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

192:You can lose everything in life,but not dreams. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

193:Abraham Lincoln now set to work with a will to educate ~ Anonymous,

194:An ant's life was to it, as sweet as ours to us. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

195:Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backward. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

196:Character is the tree, reputation is the shadow. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

197:Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

198:Every man's happiness is his own responsibility. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

199:Everything I ever learned, I learned from books. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

200:How weak and fruitless must be any word of mine. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

201:I can make more generals, but horses cost money. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

202:If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

203:Important principles may and must be inflexible. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

204:I never trusted a man who never smoked or drank. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

205:It's time for me to go. But I would rather stay. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

206:I will prepare and some day my chance will come. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

207:People who have no vices, have very few virtues. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

208:Self-actualizing people must be what they can be. ~ Abraham Maslow,

209:Sin lives solely by plagiarising the ideas of God ~ Abraham Kuyper,

210:There' s nothing good in war. Except its ending. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

211:Travel expands the mind and loosens the bowels. ~ Abraham Verghese,

212:We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

213:What are you gonna do? Kill me? Everybody dies. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

214:When we pray, we bring G-d into the world ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

215:Do you know what it's like to love and be alone? ~ Abraham Polonsky,

216:He who represents himself has a fool for a client ~ Abraham Lincoln,

217:I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

218:If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

219:I'm a great believer in geography being destiny. ~ Abraham Verghese,

220:Let us do nothing through passion and ill temper. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

221:Man is a messenger who forgot the message. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

222:So true it is that man proposes and God disposes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

223:Unity is the ultimate goal of all the ways of God. ~ Abraham Kuyper,

224:With the Catching Ends the Pleasure of the Chase. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

225:With the catching end the pleasures of the chase. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

226:You live it forward, but understand it backward. ~ Abraham Verghese,

227:Abraham had the same experience (Genesis 15). ~ D Martyn Lloyd Jones,

228:Awareness of the divine begins with wonder. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

229:Be independent of the good opinion of other people. ~ Abraham Maslow,

230:By all means, don't say, "if I can," say "I will." ~ Abraham Lincoln,

231:confused and Stunned, like a duck hit on the head. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

232:Important principles may, and must, be inflexible. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

233:Sometimes, if you think you're sick, you will be. ~ Abraham Verghese,

234:Suspicions which may be unjust need not be stated. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

235:The best time to stop a fight is before it starts. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

236:The task of life is to face sacred moments. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

237:When you win, you often lose, that's just a fact. ~ Abraham Verghese,

238:You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

239:A new book is like a friend that I have yet to meet ~ Abraham Lincoln,

240:Companies thrive on the basis of the stories they tell. ~ Jay Abraham,

241:Easiest thing in the world is to love a dying man. ~ Abraham Verghese,

242:God is the silent partner in ALL great enterprises. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

243:If I do good, I feel good...If I do bad, I feel bad ~ Abraham Lincoln,

244:Life without commitment is not worth living. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

245:Mensen zijn even gelukkig als ze besluiten te zijn. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

246:New York. Not a bad town if you’re into second cities. ~ Matt Abraham,

247:The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

248:The only way to predict the future is to create it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

249:To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

250:a slow walker, but I never walk back. ABRAHAM LINCOLN ~ Cheryl Strayed,

251:Be independent of the good opinion of other people. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

252:But fight we must; and conquer we shall; in the end. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

253:Democracy is "government of, by and for the people". ~ Abraham Lincoln,

254:Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

255:Everyone likes a good quote - don't forget to share. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

256:I am a moderate walker, however I never stroll back. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

257:I fear explanations explanatory of things explained. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

258:If they do kill me, I shall never die another death. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

259:I have no relationships and I'm, like, sad sometimes. ~ Farrah Abraham,

260:The best way to predict your future is to create it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

261:We must ask where we are and whither we are tending. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

262:What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

263:When you win, you often lose, that's just the fact. ~ Abraham Verghese,

264:A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

265:A man's legs must be long enough to reach the ground. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

266:But for this book we could not know right from wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

267:Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

268:Half finished work generally proves to be labor lost. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

269:He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

270:I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

271:I don't like that man. I must get to know him better. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

272:I got off the abutment and walked towards my office. ~ Abraham Zapruder,

273:I say 'try'; if we never try, we shall never succeed. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

274:It is gratefulness which makes the soul great. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

275:Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

276:Liquor may have its defenders, but it has no defense. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

277:Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

278:Sou um caminhante lento, mas nunca caminho para trás. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

279:Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember ~ Abraham Lincoln,

280:The characters and events in this book are fictitious. ~ Daniel Abraham,

281:There can be glory in failure and despair in success. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

282:We are simultaneously gods and worms.”—Abraham Maslow ~ Timothy Ferriss,

283:We must work earnestly in the best light He gives us. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

284:A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

285:But for that Book, we could not know right from wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

286:God must love the common man, he made so many of them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

287:It is a good face. I am glad this war is over at last. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

288:Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

289:Labor is a blessing, toil is the misery of man. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

290:Let the people know the truth and the country is safe. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

291:One can go back toward safety or forward toward growth. ~ Abraham Maslow,

292:Seriously, I do not think I am fit for the Presidency. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

293:The severest justice may not always be the best policy ~ Abraham Lincoln,

294:A lawyer's time and advice are his(her) stock in trade. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

295:Alle dead man are at peace. That's what makes them dead. ~ Daniel Abraham,

296:All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

297:All things desirable to men are contained in the Bible. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

298:Every act of self control leads to a sense of self-respect. ~ Abraham Low,

299:Every man has a right to be equal with every other man. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

300:Every person is responsible for his own looks after 40. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

301:Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

302:Glory to God in the highest, Ohio has saved the Nation. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

303:I can make brigadier generals, but i can't make horses. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

304:If you don't get killed, it's a lucky day for anybody. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

305:I have no wealthy or popular relations to recommend me. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

306:It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

307:Laugh at what you hold sacred, and still hold it sacred. ~ Abraham Maslow,

308:No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar ~ Abraham Lincoln,

309:Nothing in this world is impossible to a willing heart. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

310:Some errors you can only see once you’ve committed them. ~ Daniel Abraham,

311:The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

312:Truth is generally the best vindication against slander ~ Abraham Lincoln,

313:What treatment in an emergency is administered by ear? ~ Abraham Verghese,

314:A day spent helping no one but yourself is a day wasted. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

315:A drop of honey gathers more flies than a gallon of gall ~ Abraham Lincoln,

316:A silence thick like Georgia air in summer settled over us. ~ Matt Abraham,

317:As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

318:Cortissoz was art critic of the New York Herald Tribune. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

319:Death, however clearly foretold, still came unexpectedly. ~ Daniel Abraham,

320:Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

321:Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

322:It is not 'Is God on my side', but 'Am I on God's side'. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

323:I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane. ~ Abraham Maslow,

324:Love is the chain whereby to lock a child to its parent. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

325:No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

326:People without any vices rarely have any virtues either. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

327:The road to the sacred leads through the secular. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

328:The strength of a nation lies in the homes of its people ~ Abraham Lincoln,

329:To serve does not mean to surrender but to share. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

330:Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

331:All is in the One in power and the One is in all in act. ~ Abraham-ibn-Ezra,

332:And Sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night. ~ Abraham Cowley, Of Myself.,

333:Be guided by reason. Cold Calculated unimpassioned reason ~ Abraham Lincoln,

334:I have destroyed my enemies when I make friends with them ~ Abraham Lincoln,

335:I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

336:It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

337:It is for us and our time...to say the right makes might. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

338:Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

339:Moral principle is a looser bond than pecuniary interest. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

340:The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

341:The blessing always comes back to the door of the author. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

342:The strength of a nation lies in the homes of its people. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

343:Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

344:What did it say when a man had fewer clothes than books? ~ Abraham Verghese,

345:With high hope for the future, no prediction is ventured. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

346:Without integrity, no company can have positive word of mouth ~ Jay Abraham,

347:Arrogance doesn’t weigh much,” Marcus said. “No heft to it. ~ Daniel Abraham,

348:If I have erred, I err in company with Abraham Lincoln. ~ Theodore Roosevelt,

349:I will either be America's greatest president or its last. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

350:Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

351:Screw your courage to the sticking place." - Lady MacBeth ~ Abraham Verghese,

352:Self appointed expectations lead to self induced frustrations. ~ Abraham Low,

353:The better part of one's life consists of his friendships. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

354:Things, when magnified, are forgeries of happiness. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

355:We shall meanly lose or nobly save the last hope of earth. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

356:Without Genet as a witness, nothing I did was meaningful. ~ Abraham Verghese,

357:All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

358:Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

359:I cannot imagine anyone looking at the sky and denying God. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

360:If you can be interested in other people you can own the world. ~ Jay Abraham,

361:I must keep some standard of principle fixed within myself. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

362:Let us renew our trust in god, and go forward without fear. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

363:My policy is to have no policy.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1809–1865 ~ Robert Greene,

364:Seeing is better than being blind, even when seeing hurts. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

365:You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry ~ Abraham Lincoln,

366:18And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you! ~ Anonymous,

367:Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

368:Be careful! Travel expands the mind and loosens the bowels. ~ Abraham Verghese,

369:Character is like a tree, and reputation is like its shadow. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

370:Die meisten Menschen sind so glücklich, wie sie sein wollen. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

371:Force is all conquering, but it's victories are short lived. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

372:he led us to a table so far back we may have changed zip codes. ~ Matt Abraham,

373:I think creativity is spiritual. I absolutely believe that. ~ F Murray Abraham,

374:It must now atone in blood for its complicity in wickedness. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

375:Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

376:My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

377:My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

378:Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

379:Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

380:The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

381:The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

382:When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

383:You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

384:You can’t make a weak man strong by making a strong man weak ~ Abraham Lincoln,

385:You must build your life as if it were a work of art. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

386:You must never throw away things that are worth good money. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

387:Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. ~ Anonymous,

388:A nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

389:Every person is, in part, 'his own project' and makes himself. ~ Abraham Maslow,

390:Great men are ordinary men with extra ordinary determination. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

391:Happy is he who is aware of the mysteries of his Lord. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

392:... her unhandsome, but beautiful friend of so many years... ~ Abraham Verghese,

393:If I have to be typecast, I'd like it to be as Abraham Lincoln. ~ Sam Waterston,

394:I listen to everybody, but most of the time I learn not to do ~ Abraham Lincoln,

395:I was a hoodlum. I was a gang member, and art saved my life. ~ F Murray Abraham,

396:There is no one so lonely than a man who loves only himself. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra,

397:The test of a man is: does he bear apples? Does he bear fruit? ~ Abraham Maslow,

398:We forgot we have Holy Body not less than our Holy Spirit. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

399:What does 'happy' mean? Happiness is not a state like Vermont. ~ Abraham Maslow,

400:With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

401:Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

402:A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting. ~ Abraham Maslow,

403:Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

404:Boys will be boys as long as there are no girls in the picture. ~ Abraham Maslow,

405:Do I not damage my enemies after i make them my close friends? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

406:Every man is born an original, but sadly, most men die copies. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

407:Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought ~ Abraham Lincoln,

408:God must have loved the plain people; He made so many of them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

409:Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be. ~ Abraham Maslow,

410:I always [or "often"] walk slowly, but I never walk backwards. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

411:      I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back. ABRAHAM LINCOLN ~ Cheryl Strayed,

412:In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

413:I shall adopt new Muse as fast as they appear to be true Muse. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

414:I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

415:Just because something's a game, doesn't mean it isn't serious. ~ Daniel Abraham,

416:Prosperity is the fruit of labor. It begins with saving money. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

417:Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

418:The Lord spared the fitten and the rest he seen fitten to die. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

419:The test of a man is: does he bear apples? Does he bear fruit? ~ Abraham Maslow,

420:We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

421:We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

422:We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

423:Don't be fooled. I kept all my workout clothes in that top hat. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

424:Don't pray that God's on our side, pray that we're on his side. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

425:Her smile was so wry she could’ve used both lips to make a Reuben. ~ Matt Abraham,

426:He who sees cruelty and does nothing about it is himself cruel. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

427:I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

428:I don't take no dive for nobody. Whaddya think I am, a tanker! ~ Abraham Polonsky,

429:It is a pleasure to be able to quote lines to fit any occasion. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

430:It is much easier to ride a horse in the direction it is going. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

431:I want to be a fighter. So fight for something! Not for money. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

432:Our attitude is more honest and more consistent than our words. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

433:Patients know in a heartbeat if they're getting a clumsy exam. ~ Abraham Verghese,

434:The chicken came first - God would look silly sitting on an egg. ~ Abraham Maslow,

435:The key to all of life is understanding how to add value to others. ~ Jay Abraham,

436:The man who has not suffered - what does he know anyway? ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

437:There is none more lonely than the man who loves only himself. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra,

438:Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

439:Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves ~ Abraham Lincoln,

440:Why don't I drink from a straw? Because straws are for suckers. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

441:You only have to enforce boundaries where they’re being imposed, ~ Daniel Abraham,

442:Your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other ~ Abraham Lincoln,

443:Bring me Longstreet's head on a platter and the war will be over ~ Abraham Lincoln,

444:God can not be for, and against the same thing at the same time. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

445:God is either of no importance, or of supreme importance. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

446:If elected I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

447:Imagination in business is the ability to perceive opportunity. ~ Abraham Zaleznik,

448:Knavery and flattery are blood relations.” —Abraham Lincoln ~ Michael Z Williamson,

449:Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

450:Never do anything for anyone who can just as well do it themself ~ Abraham Lincoln,

451:Teach the children so it won't be necessary to teach the adults. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

452:The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

453:The loss of enemies does not compensate for the loss of friends. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

454:The people when rightly and fully trusted will return the trust. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

455:Today in Germany, everyone is being watched--even the watchers. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

456:When the spirit shines, even foggy skies make pleasant light. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

457:Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

458:you can't escape tomorrow's responsibilities by evading it today ~ Abraham Lincoln,

459:A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

460:Creativity is a characteristic given to all human beings at birth. ~ Abraham Maslow,

461:Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

462:He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail. ~ Abraham Maslow,

463:I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

464:In a better world, he thought, I'd have followed that man to hell. ~ Daniel Abraham,

465:I shall always think of myself first and foremost... as a hunter. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

466:I will study and prepare myself, and someday my chance will come. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

467:Menschen, die keine Laster haben, haben auch nur wenige Tugenden. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

468:Politics, as a trade, finds most and leaves nearly all dishonest. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

469:Religionizing" only one part of life secularizes the rest of it. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

470:Tangible language, which often tells more falsehoods than truths. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

471:The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

472:The fact that people who create are good workers tends to be lost. ~ Abraham Maslow,

473:Thus let bygones be bygones. Let past differences, as nothing be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

474:To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards of men. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

475:Wanting to work is so rare a merit, that it should be encouraged. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

476:What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

477:you can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors ~ Abraham Lincoln,

478:Your organization will take on the personality of its top leaders ~ Abraham Lincoln,

479:A holiday is when you celebrate something that's all finished up. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

480:Aqueles que negam liberdade aos outros não merecem para si mesmos. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

481:G0d is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

482:GAL3.9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. ~ Anonymous,

483:God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

484:Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

485:I always remember the prayers of my mother as they always forever. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

486:If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. ~ Abraham Maslow,

487:If you think you can you can, if you think you can't you're right! ~ Abraham Lincoln,

488:If you understand what you're doing, you're not learning anything. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

489:Next to creating a life the finest thing a man can do is save one. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

490:Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny. ~ Abraham Verghese,

491:The best thing a man can do for his children is love their mother. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

492:The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

493:We cannot but believe that He who made the world still governs it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

494:What is morally wrong can never be politically right.—ABRAHAM LINCOLN ~ Edward Klein,

495:You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

496:And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. ~ Anonymous,

497:Chúng ta không nên kết án người khác để chính mình không bị kết án. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

498:feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

499:Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

500:God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

501:He was teaching me how to die, just as he'd taught me how to live. ~ Abraham Verghese,

502:If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

503:I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back. ABRAHAM LINCOLN       Tell ~ Cheryl Strayed,

504:In neurotics, worm phobias are usually found as well as snake phobias. ~ Karl Abraham,

505:Life is like that. You live it forward but understand it backward. ~ Abraham Verghese,

506:My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

507:One's only failure is failing to live up to one's own possibilities. ~ Abraham Maslow,

508:Pagans exalt sacred things, the Prophets extol sacred deeds. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

509:Teach the children so it will not be necessary to teach the adults. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

510:The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

511:The most incomprehensible fact is that we comprehend at all. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

512:The only way to know where you are is by where you have just been. ~ Abraham Verghese,

513:The power of hope upon human exertion, and happiness, is wonderful. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

514:We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

515:You know you've reached middle age when all you exercise is caution ~ Abraham Lincoln,

516:Adversity does not make us frail; it only shows us how frail we are. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

517:An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle and vanished. ~ Abraham Maslow,

518:As always, dichotomizing pathologizes (and pathology dichotomizes). ~ Abraham H Maslow,

519:guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action. ~ Abraham Verghese,

520:Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

521:I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

522:I’d tell you anything you wanted to know. Probably even my real weight. ~ Matt Abraham,

523:I failed, I failed, and that is about all that can be said about it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

524:If you can't change a situation, you can change your attitude toward it. ~ Abraham Low,

525:In an emergency, what treatment is given by ear? Words of Comfort. ~ Abraham Verghese,

526:Innovation basically involves making obsolete that which you did before. ~ Jay Abraham,

527:Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. ~ Anonymous,

528:Job is we kill a goddess and save the world. Let’s not complicate it. ~ Daniel Abraham,

529:My freind is the man who gives me a book I aint read."Abraham Linclion ~ John Flanagan,

530:Nations do not die from invasion; they die from internal rottenness. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

531:Reputation is like fine china: Once broken it's very hard to repair. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

532:sanctification is dependent upon human behavior and attitude. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

533:She shone like the horizon when it is almost too bright to look upon. ~ Daniel Abraham,

534:We are forever asking Nature whether it has stopped beating its wife. ~ Abraham Kaplan,

535:Well, for starters, Abraham Lincoln didn't write 'To Kill a Mockingbird. ~ Jeff Kinney,

536:What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualizat ion. ~ Abraham Maslow,

537:What are you gonna do for a face when the baboon wants his ass back? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

538:Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

539:Without Divine assistance I can not succeed; with it I can not fail. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

540:Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

541:Abraham learned to keep his enemies close and their corpses even closer. ~ Tim Marquitz,

542:An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle and vanished. ~ Abraham Maslow,

543:Anybody will do for you, but not for me. I must have somebody. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

544:As the problems are new, we must disenthrall ourselves from the past. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

545:A tiny remnant of a big thing is better than a whole little thing. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

546:Being doomed doesn't take away from the dignity of the effort, though. ~ Daniel Abraham,

547:Being doomed doesn’t take away from the dignity of the effort, though. ~ Daniel Abraham,

548:It was the fate of all reforms that they turned against the reformers. ~ Daniel Abraham,

549:Philosophy, to be relevant, must offer us a wisdom to live by. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

550:The best way to get rid of your enemies is to make them your friends. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

551:The good will is all — and all the talents are ways to fulfill it. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

552:The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

553:There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

554:What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

555:What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself. -ABRAHAM LINCOLN ~ Cheryl Bradshaw,

556:You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

557:Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, Robert Lincoln bought a nice ski lodge. ~ Sarah Vowell,

558:And always remember, Abraham Lincoln only served one term in Congress, too. ~ Allen West,

559:A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

560:I am an optimist because I don't see the point in being anything else. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

561:I couldn't be two faced. If I had two faces, I wouldn't wear this one. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

562:If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

563:I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day, as each day came. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

564:In a word, growth and improvement can come through pain and conflict. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

565:I shall adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

566:I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

567:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ Abraham Maslow,

568:Tizitash zeweter wode ene eye metah. I can't help thinking about you. ~ Abraham Verghese,

569:To become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

570:We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

571:What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.
~ Abraham Maslow,

572:When all you own is a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail. ~ Abraham Maslow,

573:As President, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

574:A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

575:Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

576:...guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action. ~ Abraham Verghese,

577:I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

578:I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

579:In writing, as in medicine, there are no short cuts. You need stamina. ~ Abraham Verghese,

580:It's not me who can't keep a secret. It's the people I tell that can't. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

581:I've had the best of the years, and I don't want a single year back. ~ Abraham A Ribicoff,

582:Man has his future within him, dynamically alive at this present moment. ~ Abraham Maslow,

583:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ Abraham Maslow,

584:One's only security in life comes from doing something uncommonly well. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

585:So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war! ~ Abraham Lincoln,

586:The only person who is a worse liar than a faith healer is his patient. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

587:When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious. ~ Abraham Verghese,

588:You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

589:As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

590:Believing everyone is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

591:Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then... find the way. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

592:How can you expect me to be perfect...when I am full of contradictions. ~ Abraham ibn Ezra,

593:I am growing old enough not to care much for the MANNER of doing things. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

594:If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

595:If you wish to win a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

596:I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

597:I have learned the novice can often see things that the expert overlooks. ~ Abraham Maslow,

598:I'm not going to just say nice things about everybody unless I mean it. ~ F Murray Abraham,

599:Indians don't last in prison. They weren't born for it like the whites. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

600:I was born and have ever remaind [sic] in the most humble walks of life. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

601:Life too is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. ~ Abraham Verghese,

602:No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

603:. . . peace is a thing which a person must be willing to fight for . . . ~ Abraham Lincoln,

604:The key of all life is value. Value is not what you get, it's what you give. ~ Jay Abraham,

605:To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards of men. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

606:You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

607:... a child's ability for reprisal is infinite, and can last a lifetime. ~ Abraham Verghese,

608:Believing everybody is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

609:Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

610:I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. —Abraham Lincoln U.S. president ~ Kathryn Petras,

611:I am not concerned that you have fallen -- I am concerned that you arise. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

612:I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

613:I could write shorter sermons but when I get started I'm too lazy to stop ~ Abraham Lincoln,

614:No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

615:No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

616:So those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith. Galatians 3:9 ~ Beth Moore,

617:The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” -Abraham Lincoln ~ Angela Roquet,

618:The bloodlines from the Mayflower hadn’t trickled down to this zip code. ~ Abraham Verghese,

619:The occasion is piled high with difficulty. We must rise to the occasion. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

620:There was a kind of consolation in the thought that nothing lasts forever. ~ Daniel Abraham,

621:You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

622:I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

623:I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

624:I've loved a lot of people, and the word hasn't meant the same thing twice. ~ Daniel Abraham,

625:Language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication. ~ Abraham Maslow,

626:Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. ~ Abraham Verghese,

627:Now I understood what that meant: the uneventful day was a precious gift. ~ Abraham Verghese,

628:Ready are we all to cry out and ascribe motives when our toes are pinched. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

629:The essence of man is not what he is, but in what he is able to be. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

630:The person who is incapable of making a mistake, is incapable of anything. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

631:This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

632:Though I am fascinated by knowledge, I am even more fascinated by wisdom. ~ Abraham Verghese,

633:To make a discovery is not necessarily the same as to understand a discovery. ~ Abraham Pais,

634:What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself. ~ Abraham Maslow,

635:while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage. ~ Jon Meacham,

636:Women are the only people I am afraid of who I never thought would hurt me ~ Abraham Lincoln,

637:You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety. ~ Abraham Maslow,

638:A religious man is a person... whose greatest passion is compassion. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

639:Awe rather than faith is the cardinal attitude of the religious Jew. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

640:It is the man who does not want to express an opinion whose opinion I want. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

641:Laughter can be used to sooth the mind and get rid of those awful thoughts. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

642:Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

643:Possibility is a wide field, dear. "Can't" is a word for small imaginations. ~ Daniel Abraham,

644:Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

645:The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships. —Abraham Lincoln ~ Donald Rumsfeld,

646:The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

647:To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

648:When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

649:When you make it to the top, turn and reach down for the person behind you. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

650:Words are empty until you fill them, and how you fill them shapes the world. ~ Daniel Abraham,

651:You have all the time there is between right now and whenever it’s too late. ~ Daniel Abraham,

652:Abraham Lincoln once said, “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my mother. ~ Ben Carson,

653:A tendancy to melancholy...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

654:I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

655:...I'd become aware of human complexity--that's a kinder word than "deceit. ~ Abraham Verghese,

656:I have read where Abraham Lincoln said he wasn't interested in freeing the slaves. ~ Malcolm X,

657:In all that people can do for themselves, government ought not to interfere. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

658:It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

659:Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration ~ Abraham Lincoln,

660:(People achieve) fullness of being in fellowship, in care for others. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

661:The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

662:To pray is to dream in league with God, to envision His holy visions. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

663:What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

664:When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

665:You are green, it is true; but they are green also. You are all green alike. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

666:You see, young Dr. Marion, that's what makes us human. We always want more. ~ Abraham Verghese,

667:A long visit to a friend is often a great bore. Never make people twice glad. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

668:As Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better. ~ Robert Greene,

669:Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

670:Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth. ~ Abraham Maslow,

671:False optimism sooner or later means disillusionment , anger and hopelessness. ~ Abraham Maslow,

672:He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

673:How long can you pretend to be something before you aren’t pretending anymore? ~ Daniel Abraham,

674:I do not boast that God is on my side, I humbly pray that I am on God's side. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

675:If I have one vice and I can call it nothing else it is not able to say 'no'. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

676:It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

677:Let reverence for the laws . . . become the political religion of the nation. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

678:Lincoln called laughter "the joyous, beautiful, universal evergreen of life." ~ Abraham Lincoln,

679:Lincoln on Grant: "He makes things get. Wherever he is, he makes things move. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

680:No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

681:Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

682:Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

683:Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln BY DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN ~ Daniel H Pink,

684:The problem with loving someone you don't trust is finding the right distance. ~ Daniel Abraham,

685:There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

686:Tis better people think you a fool, then open your mouth and erase all doubt. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

687:Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

688:Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

689:Were it not for my little jokes, I could not bear the burdens of this office. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

690:while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, ~ David W Blight,

691:With information we are alone; in appreciation we are with all things. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

692:Words can so often mean what you take from them rather than what was intended. ~ Daniel Abraham,

693:A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded cannot be safely disregarded. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

694:Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

695:Don't worry when you are not recognized but strive to be worthy of recognition ~ Abraham Lincoln,

696:False optimism sooner or later means disillusionment, anger and hopelessness. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

697:Hãy cho tôi 6 giờ để đốn hạ một cái cây. Tôi sẽ dùng 4 giờ đầu tiên để mài rìu ~ Abraham Lincoln,

698:I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

699:I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

700:If there is anything a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance ~ Abraham Lincoln,

701:I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

702:It doesn't mater if you're a slow walker, so long as you don't walk backwards. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

703:(Karol Darwin urodził się w 1809 roku, dokładnie tego samego dnia co Abraham Lincoln ~ Anonymous,

704:Talk to the jury as though your client's fate depends on every word you utter. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

705:The opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

706:Abraham Lincoln, who said, A house divided... is a condominium. Never got a dinner! ~ Red Buttons,

707:A good surgeon needs courage for which a good pair of balls is a prerequisite, ~ Abraham Verghese,

708:Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

709:A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

710:Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

711:How we treat the least of our brethren,... that's the measure of this country. ~ Abraham Verghese,

712:If you’re failing to strategize, you’re probably using your time in the wrong ways. ~ Jay Abraham,

713:In order for us to become truly happy, that which we can become, we must become. ~ Abraham Maslow,

714:I really like to experiment. That's the only way I can work. It's instinctive. ~ F Murray Abraham,

715:Just as we are commanded to keep the Sabbath, we are commanded to labor. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

716:Marketing is the greatest return-on-investment activity a business can ever do. Let ~ Jay Abraham,

717:My experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has damned few virtues. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

718:Nothing is more damaging to you than to do something that you believe is wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

719:The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness. ~ Abraham Maslow,

720:The story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac are nowhere in any other tradition. ~ Elie Wiesel,

721:We know the average American physician interrupts their patient in 14 seconds. ~ Abraham Verghese,

722:You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

723:A number of current theoretical explorations will turn out to be passing fancies... ~ Abraham Pais,

724:Don't criticise the; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

725:Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

726:Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature can not be changed ~ Abraham Lincoln,

727:If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on ~ Abraham Lincoln,

728:Ignorance was just as dynamic as knowledge, and it grew in the same proportion. ~ Abraham Verghese,

729:Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

730:Losing everything was still losing everything, however little someone began with. ~ Daniel Abraham,

731:Sell the benefit, not your company or the product. People buy results, not features. ~ Jay Abraham,

732:The human being is so constructed that he pressed toward fuller and fuller being. ~ Abraham Maslow,

733:The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

734:The unpleasant events you are passing from will not have been profitless to you. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

735:Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

736:Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

737:We drink to the gods,” Amiit said, raising his bowl. “May they never drink to us. ~ Daniel Abraham,

738:We know nothing of what will happen in future, but by the analogy of experience. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

739:All sons should write down every word of what their fathers have to say to them. ~ Abraham Verghese,

740:Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of Independence. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

741:Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

742:Gold is good in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men are better than gold. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

743:I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

744:If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow,

745:In his book Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, Harvard professor Howard Gardner ~ Jay Abraham,

746:I see a very dark cloud on America's horizon, and that cloud is coming from Rome. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

747:It didn't occur to me that it was possible to breathe life into Abraham Lincoln. ~ Daniel Day Lewis,

748:I teethed on books of heroes such as Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and King David. ~ Luke Ford,

749:It is unfortunate to consider all lawyers as natural Satanists many are just dumb. ~ Abraham Maslow,

750:I would just as soon die now, but I haven't done anything yet to be remembered by ~ Abraham Lincoln,

751:La vie est une routine et la routine est la résistance à l'émerveillement. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

752:Money possesses no value to the state other than that given to it by circulation. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

753:Moses, Aaron, Abraham, they're all a waste of time. It's your ass that's on the line. ~ Frank Zappa,

754:Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

755:The key question isn't, 'What fosters creativity?' But it is, 'Why isn't everyone ~ Abraham Maslow,

756:The only security a man can ever have is the ability to do a job uncommonly well. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

757:The struggle of today is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

758:Well, I suppose you know that men will stand a good deal when they are flattered. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

759:We should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

760:Abraham, like his parents, seemed to have been limed and caught by the ensnaring inn. ~ Thomas Hardy,

761:Abraham Lincoln was the father of a nation and had enormous beliefs that stood well. ~ Henry Kaufman,

762:If frienship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

763:I know the hole he went in at, but I can't tell you what hole he will come out of. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

764:Legislation and adjudication must follow, and conform to, the progress of society. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

765:Lonely men seek companionship. Lonely women sit at home and wait. They never meet. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

766:These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

767:The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short. ~ Abraham Maslow,

768:The struggle of today, is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

769:Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

770:When arguing with a fool, make sure the opponent isn't doing the exact same thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

771:You cannot build a little guy up by tearing a big guy down. Abraham Lincoln said it... ~ John Kasich,

772:Advancement—improvement in condition—is the order of things in a society of equals. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

773:And may the gods keep us from a world where only the people who deserve love get it. ~ Daniel Abraham,

774:Đừng chỉ trích họ. Vì có thể, chúng ta sẽ hành xử như thế trong hoàn cảnh tương tự. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

775:I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District of Columbia. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

776:I belive that people should fight for what they believe and only what they believe. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

777:If this country is ever demoralized, it will come from trying to live without work. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

778:In my entire life I have only met four "perfect" people... and I disliked them all. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

779:Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” —Abraham Lincoln ~ Brendon Burchard,

780:Much of what the Bible demands can be comprised in one imperative: Remember! ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

781:Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

782:The bottom line: health care reform is about the patient, not about the physician. ~ Abraham Verghese,

783:the key to rapid success as a preeminent business is to fall in love with your clients. ~ Jay Abraham,

784:The land of milk and honey, Ghosh thought. Milk and honey, and love for money. Now ~ Abraham Verghese,

785:The Sabbath is the day on which we learn the art of surpassing civilization. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

786:The thing that had been her son smiled at her, misunderstanding. It was good enough. ~ Daniel Abraham,

787:All of life is education and everybody is a teacher and everybody is forever a pupil. ~ Abraham Maslow,

788:But let the past as nothing be. For the future my view is that the fight must go on. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

789:Do not bury our glorious orthodoxy in the treacherous pit of a spurious conservatism. ~ Abraham Kuyper,

790:Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

791:I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favor colonization. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

792:If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

793:If you ask me to cut down a tree I'll spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

794:In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

795:No blade can puncture the human heart like the well-chosen words of a spiteful son. ~ Abraham Verghese,

796:That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

797:The problem with internet quotes is that you cannot always depend on their accuracy. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

798:There is happiness in the love of labor, there is misery in the love of gain. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

799:They had powerful friends, and their friend’s friends had legs that made me look twice. ~ Matt Abraham,

800:[Uniting workers should not] lead to a war upon property, or the owners of property. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

801:We only understand other people by imagining what we would do in their position. What ~ Daniel Abraham,

802:When I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

803:You have confidence in yourself, which is valuable, if not an indispensable quality. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

804:Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

805:Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

806:I cannot bring myself to believe that any human being lives who would do me any harm. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

807:I don't s'pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better'n I do-and gets less'n I do. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

808:In the end, it's not the years in your life that counts. It's the life in your years. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

809:I've made it a policy to move every five years, either physically or in my research. ~ Abraham Robinson,

810:I was born on 22 March 1931 in New York, the elder child of Abraham and Fanny Richter. ~ Burton Richter,

811:I would rather be assassinated than see a single star removed from the American flag. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

812:justice is based on certainty, but certainty is not truth, atrocities become possible. ~ Daniel Abraham,

813:Lamon, that speech won't scour. It is a flat failure and the people are disappointed. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

814:The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

815:To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. ~ Abraham Maslow,

816:Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted ~ Abraham Verghese,

817:We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. —Abraham Lincoln, 1862 ~ Jill Lepore,

818:With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

819:And in the end it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years ~ Abraham Lincoln,

820:Labor is superior to capital and precedes capital. Without labor, there is no capital. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

821:Mathematics is not yet capable of coping with the naïveté of the mathematician himself. ~ Abraham Kaplan,

822:Nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

823:She drew others to her like acolytes only for them to discover she wasn't recruiting. ~ Abraham Verghese,

824:The world shall know that I will keep my faith to friends and enemies, come what will. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

825:Wasn’t that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted? ~ Abraham Verghese,

826:We cannot be passive and silent towards those who reject God's Word and our holy faith. ~ Abraham Kuyper,

827:We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

828:A man could spend the rest of his life trying to remember what he shouldn't have said. ~ Abraham Polonsky,

829:Any society that takes away from those most capable and gives to the least will perish. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

830:Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. ~ Abraham Kaplan,

831:Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meanness for the public good. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

832:I love to read poetry but I haven't written anything that I'm willing to show anybody. ~ Abraham Verghese,

833:I think Abraham Lincoln said believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see. ~ Mike Pence,

834:I will do what I think is right and when I discover that it is wrong, I will change it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

835:Leadership requires using power to influence the thoughts and actions of other people. ~ Abraham Zaleznik,

836:Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

837:Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals ~ Abraham Verghese,

838:Now I saw this categorizing of my freezer food as a sign of the true chaos in my head. ~ Abraham Verghese,

839:On the whole, my impression is that mercy bears richer fruits than any other attribute. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

840:Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

841:The negative principle that no law is free law, is not much known except among lawyers. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

842:There is not an inch of any sphere of life over which Jesus Christ does not say, 'Mine.' ~ Abraham Kuyper,

843:To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

844:We seek not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow those who would prevert it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

845:29And a if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, b heirs according to promise. ~ Anonymous,

846:All that is left to us is our being horrified at the loss of our sense of horror. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

847:And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

848:Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

849:Faith like Job's cannot be shaken becasue it is the result of having been shaken. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

850:I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down but I bite my lip and keep quiet. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

851:If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

852:I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

853:I intend no modification of my oft-expressed wish that all men everywhere could be free. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

854:I'll kill you with my own hands rather than let you put the mark of Cain on my brother! ~ Abraham Polonsky,

855:In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

856:I think that Abraham Lincoln probably did more to trick negroes than any other man in history. ~ Malcolm X,

857:Life for the Italians was what it was, no more and no less, an interlude between meals. ~ Abraham Verghese,

858:My old father used to have a saying: If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

859:Surgery was the most difficult thing I could imagine.

And so I became a surgeon. ~ Abraham Verghese,

860:The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

861:The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not. ~ Abraham Verghese,

862:Wasn’t that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted? A ~ Abraham Verghese,

863:When I go hear a man speak, I like to hear him speak like he's fighting a swarm of bees. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

864:Abraham," he said. "I'm pleased to see you alive, old friend." "And I to see you dead. ~ Seth Grahame Smith,

865:Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

866:A prophet's true greatness is his ability to hold God and man in a single thought. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

867:Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity - Posterity has done nothing for us ~ Abraham Lincoln,

868:Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

869:Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

870:if you think you are too small to make a change, try to sleep in a room with one mosquito! ~ Daniel Abraham,

871:If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

872:I have discovered the missing link between the anthropoid apes and civilized men. It's us! ~ Abraham Maslow,

873:No country has ever fallen while it was truly honoring the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ~ Louie Gohmert,

874:One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

875:Teach economy. That is one of the first and highest virtues. It begins with saving money. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

876:The course of life is unpredictable no one can write his autobiography in advance. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

877:The crookedness of the serpent is still straight enough to slide through the snake hole. ~ Abraham Verghese,

878:The secret is yet another set of three P’s: Be preeminent, be preemptive, and be proprietary. ~ Jay Abraham,

879:We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

880:We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn, or scoff at the totality of being. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

881:Even the written history [of Abraham Lincoln's times] is poorly understood by most people. ~ George Saunders,

882:How good a society does human nature permit? How good a human nature does society permit? ~ Abraham H Maslow,

883:I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

884:In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

885:I think the world is often like that.” “Like what?” “Comic, but only at the right distance. ~ Daniel Abraham,

886:It isn't normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement. ~ Abraham Maslow,

887:I turn, then, and look to the American people and to that God who has never forsaken them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

888:No man who is resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

889:What then can we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? Romans 4:1 ~ Beth Moore,

890:When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

891:Whether you look for the good or look for the bad in a person, you'll find it." A. Lincoln ~ Abraham Lincoln,

892:You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence ~ Abraham Lincoln,

893:All that is left is to us is our being horrified at the loss of our sense of horror. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

894:A rich man's faults are covered with money, but a surgeon's faults are covered with earth. ~ Abraham Verghese,

895:As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

896:Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

897:Highly sensitive men who are famous include Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Jim Carrey. ~ Judith Orloff,

898:I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

899:I looked at the paper. Maps were more accurate back when they thought you could sail off them. ~ Matt Abraham,

900:I’ve been pinching our pennies so tightly that Abraham Lincoln’s face is imprinted on my fingers. ~ Wendy Wax,

901:Man is not the only animal who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

902:Men like him became stubborn with opposition, because their convictions were all they had. ~ Abraham Verghese,

903:Oh, that [his Thanksgiving Message] is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

904:Secrecy, censorship, dishonesty, and blocking of communication threaten all the basic needs. ~ Abraham Maslow,

905:... telling herself stories about herself in a singsong voice, creating her own mythology. ~ Abraham Verghese,

906:The surest way to reveal one's character is not through adversity but by giving them power. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

907:To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

908:Was it Abraham Lincoln who said that if you wanted to test a man’s character, give him power? ~ Milly Johnson,

909:When met with a problem I always ask myself what is the right thing to do and then I do it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

910:Abraham," he said. "I'm pleased to see you alive, old friend."
"And I to see you dead. ~ Seth Grahame Smith,

911:Allow me to assure you, that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

912:Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.” —Abraham Lincoln ~ Bathroom Readers Institute,

913:Doubt is a first cousin to faith, Ghosh. To have faith, you have to suspend your disbelief. ~ Abraham Verghese,

914:Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

915:If 600,000 people have to die in order for the nation to live, then 600,000 people will die. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

916:If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six of them sharpening my axe. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

917:I knew what I'd say to him: You're much too late. We went ahead with our lives without you. ~ Abraham Verghese,

918:It isn't normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

919:It sounds so good: the futurism of The Jetsons meets the self-actualization of Abraham Maslow. ~ Sven Birkerts,

920:Secrecy, censorship, dishonesty, and blocking of communication threaten all the basic needs. ~ Abraham Maslow,

921:The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

922:We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

923:What is hell other than a realm in which unholiness works without restraint in body and soul? ~ Abraham Kuyper,

924:Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

925:Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

926:How embarrassing for man to be the greatest miracle on earth and not to understand it! ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

927:If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

928:I have always believed that a good laugh was good for both the mental and physical digestion. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

929:I hear you have abolitionists here. We have a few in Illinois, but we shot one the other day. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

930:My grandma would quote Abraham Lincoln all the time: "Whatever you do in life, be a good one." ~ Donald Cerrone,

931:Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

932:So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. ~ Anonymous,

933:The trouble with Hooker is that he's got his headquarters where his hindquarters aught to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

934:The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

935:We want, and must have, a national policy, as to slavery, which deals with it as being wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

936:You can always lie to others and hide your actions from them... but you can not fool yourself ~ Abraham Lincoln,

937:A moment of insight is a fortune, transporting us beyond the confines of measured time. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

938:And upon this act [Emancipation Proclamation]...I invoke...the gracious favor of Almighty God. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

939:A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

940:Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. ~ Anonymous,

941:Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

942:In any free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty - all are responsible. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

943:Let no feeling of discouragement prey
upon you, and in the end you
are sure to succeed. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

944:Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

945:Quando faccio bene mi sento bene. Quando faccio male mi sento male. Questa è la mia religione. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

946:The man moved effortlessly from group to group, pressing more flesh than an eight-armed masseuse, ~ Matt Abraham,

947:There is no greater injustice than to wring your profits from the sweat of another man's brow. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

948:This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

949:Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

950:You can not fail in any laudable object, unless you allow your mind to be improperly directed. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

951:A jury too often has at least one member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

952:I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

953:I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

954:I don’t think you can be a physician and not see yourself reflected in your patient’s illness. ~ Abraham Verghese,

955:It is of the essence of virtue that the good is not to be done for the sake of a reward. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

956:My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

957:Nobody messes with my boy. Not Abraham Ravenwood, nor the Serpent or Old Scratch himself, you hear? ~ Kami Garcia,

958:The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

959:The principle to be kept in mind is to know what we see rather than to see what we know. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

960:The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not." p 533 ~ Abraham Verghese,

961:The worst thing you can do for anyone you care about is anything that they can do on their own. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

962:We trust, sir, that God is on our side. It is more important to know that we are on God's side. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

963:What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

964:A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

965:From 1836 to 1868, only one candidate was elected to the presidency more than once—Abraham Lincoln. ~ Mark R Levin,

966:I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

967:man who goes to a hardware store to buy a power drill doesn’t really need a drill—he needs holes. He ~ Jay Abraham,

968:Money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace & conspire against it in times of adversity. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

969:The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

970:The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do themselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

971:We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. Founder of the Republican Party. ~ Barack Obama,

972:We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

973:What has ever threatened our liberty and prosperity save and except this institution of Slavery? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

974:Do you think we choose the times into which we are born? Or do we fit the times we are born into? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

975:He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

976:I am for . . . each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

977:I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

978:If we magnified our successes as much as we magnify our disappointments, we'd all be much happier ~ Abraham Lincoln,

979:It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory. ~ Abraham Verghese,

980:I understand that it is a maxim of law, that a poor plea may be a good plea to a bad declaration. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

981:I’ve learned that although our dreams may die, if you open yourself up to life, new ones are born. ~ Farrah Abraham,

982:The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

983:The solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

984:To be or not to be is not the question, the vital question is how to be and how not to be… ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

985:Whenever there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must prevail. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

986:When I was a child I had a crush on Abraham Lincoln. Why I would choose to reveal this, I know not. ~ Julia Roberts,

987:Why don't you laugh? If I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

988:Abraham Lincoln said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing other people; it’s the only thing. ~ Chris Brady,

989:A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

990:All we own is a passing intention, but what comes about will outlive and surpass our power. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

991:Fondly do we hope, ferverently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

992:Halte dir jeden Tag dreißig Minuten für deine Sorgen frei und mache in dieser Zeit ein Nickerchen. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

993:I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

994:In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

995:Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward." from CUTTING FOR STONE ~ Abraham Verghese,

996:No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

997:Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.

From "Cutting for Stone ~ Abraham Verghese,

998:Sending armies to McClellan is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard, not half of them get there. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

999:So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exodus 2:24 ~ Beth Moore,

1000:The Cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred defeats. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1001:The fact that people were attentive to his body does not compensate for their ignoring his being. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1002:The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation, because she never cackles until the egg is laid. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1003:The major motivation theories by which most men live can lead them only to depression and cynicism. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1004:To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1005:Yang penting bukan berapa kali aku gagal, tapi yang penting berapa kali aku bangkit dari kegagalan ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1006:You can complain because a rose has thorns, or you can rejoice
Because the thorns have a rose. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1007:22The poor man died and was carried by i the angels j to Abraham’s side. [6] The rich man also died and ~ Anonymous,

1008:Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence. ~ William Zinsser,

1009:Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1010:I am glad to see that a system of labor prevails under which laborers can strike when they want to. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1011:I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything unless I hope to produce some good by it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1012:I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1013:In the words of Abraham Maslow, “He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail. ~ Stephen R Covey,

1014:I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1015:Offering thanks in the midst of tragedy is an American tradition, . even during a bloody Civil War. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1016:Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1017:Sometimes we pay too much attention in Washington to public relations, as opposed to the substance. ~ Spencer Abraham,

1018:The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1019:The seminaries must be like the churches' poor relations, prolonging their existence with austerity. ~ Abraham Kuyper,

1020:You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1021:Abraham Lincoln. He once said that the best thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother. ~ John Wooden,

1022:...and there will be no more interruptions and you will be staying for dessert, coffee, and cigars. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1023:Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1024:I have two brothers buried in the military cemetery in Texas. I don't want to see any more of that. ~ F Murray Abraham,

1025:I think there were two great gay Americans obviously, and that was Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman. ~ Andrew Sullivan,

1026:Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion can change the government. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1027:People are silently begging to be acknowledged, informed, given advance opportunities and led to action. ~ Jay Abraham,

1028:Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1029:The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. None who would do more to preserve it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1030:The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1031:The political horizon looks dark and lowering; but the people, under Providence, will set all right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1032:The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1033:The trouble with too many people is they believe the realm of truth always lies within their vision. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1034:Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? - "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." ~ Martin Luther King Jr,

1035:We can succeed only by concert. It is not 'can any of us imagine better?, but 'can we all do better? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1036:When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1037:When you have got a ticket to send, and you're not a top costumer, it's best not to waste your time. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1038:Without the assistance of that Divine Being...I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1039:Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1040:Now, and ever, I shall do all in my power for peace, consistently with the maintenance of government. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1041:Our concern is not how to worship in the catacombs but how to remain human in the skyscrapers. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1042:The Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln. ~ John F Kennedy,

1043:The most important innovation in medicine to come in the next 10 years: the power of the human hand. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1044:The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1045:There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, 'Truth is the daughter of Time.' ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1046:With public sentiment, nothing can fail,” Abraham Lincoln said, “without it nothing can succeed. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin,

1047:Yeah that’s true, I saw it once. Guy bigger than you, tougher too, died in a pool of his own everything. ~ Matt Abraham,

1048:I could as easily bail out the Potomac River with a teaspoon as attend to all the details of the army. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1049:If I am killed, I can die by once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1050:If the only tool you have is a hammer, all your problems begin to look like nails. - Abraham Maslow ~ Laurell K Hamilton,

1051:In any given moment we have two options:
To step forward into growth or to step back into safety. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

1052:In working myself ragged, I felt integrated, I felt American, and I rarely had time to think of home. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1053:I ... ran for Legislature [in 1832] ... and was beaten-the only time I have been beaten by the people. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1054:It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1055:Labor is the great source from which nearly all, if not all, human comforts and necessities are drawn. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1056:The fact is, everyone is in sales. Whatever area you work in, you do have clients and you do need to sell. ~ Jay Abraham,

1057:There is a man named Ovi Niit. He runs a comfort house in the soft quarter. I mean to take it from him. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1058:There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus does not cry out, 'This is mine!' ~ Abraham Kuyper,

1059:We cannot make Him visible to us, but we can make ourselves visible to Him,” said Abraham Joshua Heschel ~ Philip Yancey,

1060:We say our souls want joy, but they don’t,” she said. “They want what they already know, joyful or not. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1061:Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1062:When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1063:A child wants some kind of undisrupted routine or rhythm. He seems to want a predictable, orderly world. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1064:As we keep or break the Sabbath Day we nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope by which man rises. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1065:Great distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1066:I believe I shall never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1067:If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1068:I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1069:In order to win a man to your cause, you must first reach his heart, the great high road to his reason. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1070:In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1071:It was the very moment when I thought, At last, she is going to stay, but in fact it was her good-bye. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1072:I was elected a Captain of Volunteers--a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1073:Judge us not equally, Abraham. We may all deserve hell, but some of us deserve it sooner than others ~ Seth Grahame Smith,

1074:My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1075:Not married until 33, Abraham Lincoln said, "A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that cannot hurt me. ~ Shelby Foote,

1076:Sometimes the hand pulls the puppet, sometimes the puppet pulls the hand, but the string runs both ways. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1077:Stand with anyone that is right; stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1078:That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1079:The tragedy of religion is partly due to its isolation from life, as if God could be segregated. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1080:The working men are the basis of all governments, for the plain reason that they are the most numerous. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1081:Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot retain it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1082:When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away. it's best to let him run". ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1083:~ Abraham Lincoln

,
His hand and pen:
He will be good but
God knows When.
~ Abraham Lincoln,

1084:And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. ~ Anonymous,

1085:How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1086:If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1087:I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is, but it does not admit of holidays. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1088:Judge us not equally, Abraham. We may all deserve hell, but some of us deserve it sooner than others. ~ Seth Grahame Smith,

1089:People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
[in review of a book] ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1090:Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1091:The damnest scoundrel that ever lived, but in the infinite mercy of Providence... also the damnest fool. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1092:The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1093:The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1094:There are no halfway measures against bigotry, hatred and anti-Semitism. It's got to be rejected totally. ~ Abraham Foxman,

1095:This is the land I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “I will give it to your descendants.” Deuteronomy 34:4 ~ Beth Moore,

1096:When you lack interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1097:Would you like some ice?” “Sure. If it’s not too much trouble I’ll take it in a glass, floating in whiskey. ~ Matt Abraham,

1098:Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1099:Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” —Abraham Lincoln ~ Timothy Ferriss,

1100:God created hand, head, and heart; the hand for the deed, the head for the world, the heart for mysticism. ~ Abraham Kuyper,

1101:He leaned about the same way in falling towards Jacqueline, forward, down towards the bottom of the car. ~ Abraham Zapruder,

1102:Human beings seem to be far more autonomous and self-governed than modern psychological theory allows for. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1103:I am busily engaged in the study of the Bible. I believe it is God's word because it finds me where I am. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1104:None seemed to think the injury arose from the use of a bad thing but from the abuse of a very good thing ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1105:President Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. ~ John C Maxwell,

1106:Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1107:The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them, when they are invaded. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1108:There's no one who I believe has ever captured the soul of America more profoundly than Abraham Lincoln has. ~ Barack Obama,

1109:To lose everything is not the worst that can happen."
"It's starting again, from nothing, with nothing. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1110:We are great and our faults are great and therefore our problems great and great are our consolations. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

1111:What does the Scripture say? “ Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.” Romans 4:3 ~ Beth Moore,

1112:A monstrous talent that could do anything because no one had managed to convince it of what was impossible. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1113:If 'ecstasy' meant the sudden intrusion of the sacred into the ordinary, then it had just happened to me. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1114:If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1115:I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1116:I was a little cross.I ask pardon. If I do get up a little temper I have no sufficient time to keep it up. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1117:Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1118:The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1119:There is no reverence for God without reverence for man. Love of man is the way to the love of God. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1120:There wasn't any point in dwelling in the pain of the past, not when the future could hold suck pleasure. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1121:The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1122:All possibilities resided within me, and they required me to be here. If I left, what would be left of me? ~ Abraham Verghese,

1123:and in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1124:As many people as there are to hold you back, there are angels whose humanity makes up for all the others. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1125:- But Abraham, you mean I'm supposed to make stuff up !?!? - You are creators, you make stuff up all the time! ~ Esther Hicks,

1126:Do the right thing, put up with unfairness, selfishness, stay true to yourself...one day it all works out. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1127:How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1128:If I could be any famous person, I'd be John Wilkes Booth, because I'd love to shoot Abraham Lincoln in the face ~ Thom Yorke,

1129:I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

1130:It is theologically false to believe that satan is a counterpart to God, he is rather the enemy to Abraham. ~ Ibrahim Ibrahim,

1131:I've never see God," Yardem said.
"But you believe in him," Master Kit said.
"I'm reserving judgement. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1132:I wish to see, in process of disappearing, that only thing which ever could bring this nation to civil war. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1133:May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1134:Mr. Dallstrom is a bald, scarecrow of a man with a poochy stomache. Think of a pregnant Abraham Lincoln. ~ Richard Paul Evans,

1135:My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1136:The onset of mania occurs when repression is no longer able to resist the assaults of the repressed instincts. ~ Karl Abraham,

1137:To have faith in the Word, Scripture must not grasp us in our critical thought, but in the life of the soul. ~ Abraham Kuyper,

1138:Within the hour, Abraham Ravenwood was denounced as the Devil, a cheat, a scoundrel, a no-goodnik, and a thief. ~ Kami Garcia,

1139:Yesterday misspent can't be recall'd Vanity makes beauty contemptible Wisdom is more valuable than riches. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1140:A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started ... the fate of humanity is in his hands. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1141:Faith opens our hearts for the entrance of the holy. It is almost as though God were thinking for us. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1142:I could kill you a thousand times over Abraham, but we would never be even. You took everything I had. ~ Christopher Buecheler,

1143:I don't speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don't have the power to remain silent. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

1144:it was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive.
Memory." p 380 ~ Abraham Verghese,

1145:Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1146:There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed- ~ Abraham Verghese,

1147:There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1148:The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not." -Cutting for Stone ~ Abraham Verghese,

1149:Tis because we be on a blighted star, and not a sound one, isn't it, Tess?" murmured Abraham through his tears. ~ Thomas Hardy,

1150:When I lay down the reins of this administration, I want to have one friend left. And that friend is myself. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1151:When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL. Earl ~ DiAnn Mills,

1152:Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1153:Your "Gloria" lives within you, The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what G od made possible in you ~ Abraham Verghese,

1154:Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two [good and evil]. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1155:am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27He is not God of the dead, but of the living. ~ Anonymous,

1156:Customer: A person who purchases a commodity or service. Client: A person who is under the protection of another. ~ Jay Abraham,

1157:Every war was the precursor for the wars that followed, a slaughter that justified the slaughters to come. And ~ Daniel Abraham,

1158:Het is niet normaal om te weten wat we willen. Dat is een enorme en uitzonderlijke psychologische prestatie. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

1159:Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1160:I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down... ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1161:I am in favor of a national bank...in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1162:If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1163:I think the authors of that notable instrument [the Declaration of Independence] intended to include all men. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1164:It is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters who choose to vote, that constitute political power. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1165:It is the quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1166:My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally without education. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1167:People will love you. People will hate you. And none of it will have anything to do with you. —Abraham-Hicks ~ Chantal Fernando,

1168:Prophecy cannot be separated very long from doxology, or it will either wither or become ideology. Abraham ~ Walter Brueggemann,

1169:The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1170:The leading rule for a man of every calling is diligence; never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1171:There were so many odd, strange things about Abraham Lincoln that I think nobody knew how to pigeonhole him. ~ Steven Spielberg,

1172:To be around someone whose self-confidence is more than what our first glance led us to expect is seductive. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1173:When the hour comes for dealing with slavery, I trust I will be willing to do my duty though it cost my life. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1174:Abraham is trying to obey God, but not to kill. I feel that moment is one of the defining moments of Jewish faith. ~ Elie Wiesel,

1175:- But Abraham, you mean I'm supposed to make stuff up !?!?
- You are creators, you make stuff up all the time! ~ Esther Hicks,

1176:Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1177:He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1178:I am the President of the United States of America, clothed in immense power! You will procure me these votes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1179:In law it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1180:No client ever had money enough to bribe my conscience or to stop its utterance against wrong, and oppression. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1181:There is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1182:You have also become a trusted adviser and a friend. And you should think of your clients as dear, valued friends. ~ Jay Abraham,

1183:Again, a law may be both constitutional and expedient, and yet may be administered in an unjust and unfair way. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1184:A right result, at this time, will be worth more to the world, than ten times the men, and ten times the money. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1185:As Isabel Allende said, “You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.” Step ~ Jay Abraham,

1186:But the lesson of Abraham's story is that God demands the best we have to offer, that which is most precious to us. ~ Ken Follett,

1187:Deliberately or not, every author is of course present in every book he or she writes - even in a scientific text. ~ Abraham Pais,

1188:It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1189:Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1190:Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1191:Racism is man’s gravest threat to man—the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason. Abraham Joshua Heschel. ~ Maloy Krishna Dhar,

1192:she found her greatness, at last, found it in her suffering. Once you have greatness, who needs anything else? ~ Abraham Verghese,

1193:The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1194:The human mind is impelled to action, or held in rest by some power, over which the mind itself has no control. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1195:When you start talking about killed friends and lost babies, justice and revenge are two names for the same dog. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1196:Writer and researcher of group dynamics Christina Baldwin once said, “Words are how we think, story is how we link. ~ Jay Abraham,

1197:95[Prophet], say, ‘God speaks the truth, so follow Abraham’s religion: he had true faith and he was never an idolater. ~ Anonymous,

1198:Babel significó la dispersión de los pueblos, pero Abraham significó reunirlos en torno a la promesa de Dios. Fue ~ John R W Stott,

1199:being used now, in order to force slavery on to Kansas; for it cannot be done in any other way. [Sensation.] The ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1200:How many honest men do you know? Take the sinners away from the saints, you're lucky to end up with Abraham Lincoln. ~ Paul Newman,

1201:If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1202:I had been told I was on the road to hell, but I had no idea it was just a mile down the road with a dome on it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1203:I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1204:I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1205:Jeremiah 17 it is written, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, and who can understand it? ~ Abraham Verghese,

1206:My Dear McClellan, if you don't want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1207:One company can serve some of your needs all of the time, or all of your needs some of the time, but never both. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1208:The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important. ABRAHAM MASLOW ~ Mark Sanborn,

1209:There's ways you can trust an enemy you can't always trust a friend. An enemy's never going to betray your trust. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1210:You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1211:As soon as you open your mind to doing things differently, the doors of opportunity practically fly off their hinges. ~ Jay Abraham,

1212:Cling to liberty and right; battle fro them; leed for them; die for them, if need be; and have confidence in God. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1213:How did you find out?" "I listened. I lied. The normal things anyone would do who wanted to know something hidden. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1214:Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1215:Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views, and boldest action to bring it speedy relief. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1216:Psychoanalytic investigation has shown that in mental patients excessive affection often turns to violent hostility. ~ Karl Abraham,

1217:Putting the budget ahead of the policy is the wrong way to do it. It's too often the way it's done in Washington. ~ Spencer Abraham,

1218:Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1219:What God said to Abraham was not 'Obey this law and I will bless you', but 'I will bless you; believe my promise'. ~ John R W Stott,

1220:Who is a Jew? A person whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1221:Yesterday misspent can't be recall'd
Vanity makes beauty contemptible
Wisdom is more valuable than riches. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1222:All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1223:He whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers, has declared that 'a house divided against itself cannot stand ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1224:In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1225:It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or seen. Every man’s a child until he’s a father. It’s the way the world’s made. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1226:Life is not meaningful...unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1227:Military glory-that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood-that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1228:Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1229:My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1230:My wife told me that in the Bible, Abraham circumcised himself... wow! I can't even get to the bank before it closes. ~ Jim Gaffigan,

1231:One cannot choose wisely for a life unless he dares to listen to himself, his own self, at each moment of his life. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1232:Whatever spiteful fools may say, Each jealous ranting yelper, No woman ever went astray, Without a man to help her ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1233:Customer: A person who purchases a commodity or service. Client: A person who is under the protection of another. The ~ Jay Abraham,

1234:Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important non-evil generators of human evil, tragedy and suffering. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1235:If Mr. Fantastic and Professor X had a baby, there would be tons of questions, but also it would be Abraham Lincoln. ~ Daniel O Brien,

1236:Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
~ Abraham Heschel, [T5],

1237:Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1238:The grand premise of religion is that man is able to surpass himself; that man who is part of this world may ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1239:Weakness is what keeps driving us to God, by the overwhelming conviction that there just isn't anywhere else to go. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1240:A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1241:A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1242:If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1243:In the thousand years since its foundation, the city had never been taken by force, though twice it had been seduced. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1244:It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for bread and meat, if I neglect my business this year as well as last. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1245:Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1246:The only difference between stepping stones and stumbling blocks is the way we address the rocks cast into our path. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1247:We must remember that knowledge of one’s own deep nature is also simultaneously knowledge of human nature in general. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1248:Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people. ~ Anonymous,

1249:A man is only as rich as the number of children he fathers. After all, what else do we leave behind in this world... ~ Abraham Verghese,

1250:As she bent over the child she realized that the tragedy of death had to do entirely with what was left unfulfilled. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1251:Being the companion of the folk of this world is fire. There must be an Abraham if the fire is not going to burn [you]. ~ Shams Tabrizi,

1252:Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1253:Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1254:Her broad brimmed hat cast a shadow over a pair of almond eyes so smoky they could teach a Navajo communications course, ~ Matt Abraham,

1255:I believe it from the bottom of my heart, and your sons and daughters, too, can have the American dream come true. ~ Abraham A Ribicoff,

1256:If I gave McClellan all the men he asked for, they could not find room to lie down; they'd have to sleep standing up. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1257:If my father's son can become President of these United States, then your father's son can become anything he wishes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1258:I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1259:Semua orang bisa tahan dengan kesengsaraan, tapi bila kau ingin mengetahui karakter seseorang, berilah dia kekuasaan. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1260:The written word may be man's greatest invention. It allows us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1261:We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1262:We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We’ll leave much unfinished for the next generation. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1263:We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1264:What a journey...what a day...what madness, so much worse than tragic! What to do except dance, dance, only dance... ~ Abraham Verghese,

1265:Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1266:Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1267:He who is satisfied has never truly craved, and he who craves for the light of God neglects his ease for ardor. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1268:...his crime was to belong to the losing side, or perhaps even the wrong side. But all he'd done was follow orders... ~ Abraham Verghese,

1269:Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1270:Military glory--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy... ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1271:Our political problem now is, "Can we as a nation continue together permanently - forever - half slave and half free?" ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1272:The problem with information on the Internet is that it is hard to verify its authenticity.” —Abraham Lincoln.     • ~ Elizabeth Pantley,

1273:Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1274:We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1275:We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1276:A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.
~ Abraham Maslow,

1277:Her shoulder length hair was the color of pitch and looked like it only had casual relationships with the brushes it knew. ~ Matt Abraham,

1278:Keep focused on the substantive issues. To make a decision means having to go through one door and closing all others. ~ Abraham Zaleznik,

1279:Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1280:Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1281:Surely you couldn't be a good doctor and a terrible human being---surely the laws of man, if not God, didn't allow it. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1282:The Bible says somewhere that we are desperately selfish. I think we would have discovered that fact without the Bible. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1283:War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1284:When God changed someone’s name in Scripture, He changed their destiny: Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter. ~ Peter Kreeft,

1285:Honest Abe never lied. That's the good thing. That's the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you [Hillary Clinton]. ~ Donald Trump,

1286:How beautiful and horrible life is, Hema thought; too horrible to simply call tragic. Life is worse than tragic." p 108 ~ Abraham Verghese,

1287:I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side. ~ John F Kerry,

1288:If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1289:Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1290:My wife is as handsome as when she was a girl, and I...fell in love with her; and what is more, I have never fallen out. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1291:So astonishing was his physique that another man unabashedly described young Abraham Lincoln as “a cross between Venus and ~ Bill O Reilly,

1292:Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1293:The blood of Abraham, God’s father of the chosen, still flows in the veins of Arab, Jew, and Christian, and too much of it has ~ Anonymous,

1294:The written word may be man's greatest invention. It allows us to
converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1295:We fear our highest possibility. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1296:What I want is to get done what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1297:When we cannot cure or save a life, our patients can at least feel cared for. It should be a basic human right.” Harris ~ Abraham Verghese,

1298:Don't kneel to me, that is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1299:Father Abraham… has many sons…. Many sons has Faaaaather Abraham. I am one… and so are you… sooooo let’s all praise the Lord! ~ Lucian Bane,

1300:Gentlemen, why do you not laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me day and night, if I did not laugh, I should die. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1301:I am satisfied that when the Almighty wants me to do or not do any particular thing, He finds a way of letting me know it ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1302:If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1303:I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1304:In our resolve to build a better world... we seek to summon what Abraham Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. ~ James Earl Jones,

1305:In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1306:It is easiest to "be all things to all men," but it is not honest. Self-respect must be sacrificed every hour in the day. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1307:The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1308:The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1309:What a bad idea it had been to give the Bible to anyone but priests, Ghosh thought. It made a preacher out of everybody. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1310:When I wake to the gift of yet another sunrise my first thought is to rouse him and say, I owe you the sight of morning. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1311:Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man's attitude toward history and nature. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1312:Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man’s attitude toward history and nature. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1313:As Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. ~ Kate Collins,

1314:By visiting patients in their home, by helping them come to terms with their illness, I could heal when I could not cure. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1315:Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1316:Don't judge a man by the size of his ego or his heart, but on the epicness of his beard and the beautiful woman on his arm ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1317:If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

1318:I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1319:I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing, that no man desires for himself. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1320:It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1321:It is vital that people "count their blessings:" to appreciate what they possess without having to undergo its actual loss. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1322:Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1323:MAT22.32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. ~ Anonymous,

1324:Study the Constitution. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislatures, and enforced in courts of justice. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1325:That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1326:The larger the island of knowledge the longer the shore line of wonder. Wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1327:Woody Allen sets are very quiet. Extraordinary sense of power from a man who doesn't do anything except just stand there. ~ F Murray Abraham,

1328:You don't know who to believe. Like Abraham Lincoln. He said all men were created equal. He never went to a nude beach. ~ Rodney Dangerfield,

1329:All events are secretly interrelated; the sweep of all we are doing reaches beyond the horizon of our comprehension. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1330:A man is only as rich as the number of children he fathers. After all, what else do we leave behind in this world, Doctor? ~ Abraham Verghese,

1331:As far as I can tell, life’s just one flaming piece of shit after another, except when it’s a bunch of them all at once. But ~ Daniel Abraham,

1332:Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen. ~ Blaise Pascal,

1333:I don't like to hear cut and dried sermons. No—when I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1334:if you want your name to be remembered after your death either do something worth writing or write some thing worth reading ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1335:I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1336:point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us.” -Abraham ~ Cheryl Bradshaw,

1337:There is a word that is seldom said, a word for an emotion almost too deep to be expressed: the love of the Sabbath. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1338:A stupid man behaves stupidly, not because he wants to, or tries to, or is motivated to, but simply because he is what he is. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1339:I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1340:If any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly, those who desire it for others ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1341:If we exchange one dollar, we both have one dollar each. But if we exchange one good thought, we both have two good thoughts ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1342:If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1343:I hold that while a man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1344:In this temple As in the hearts of the people For whom he saved the Union The memory of Abraham Lincoln Is enshrined forever ~ Royal Cortissoz,

1345:Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.... ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1346:Miriam Sacher had survived polio as a child. To Abraham, she was simply the most exquisite little bird who could not fly. ~ Guillermo del Toro,

1347:Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1348:The eyes of that species of extinct giant, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara as our eyes do now. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1349:The myth is a surviving fragment of the psychic life of the infancy of the race whilst the dream is the myth of the individual. ~ Karl Abraham,

1350:The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1351:The Second Temple was destroyed because of causeless hatred. Perhaps the Third will be rebuilt because of causeless love. ~ Abraham Isaac Kook,

1352:Vision, the hallmark of leadership, is less a derivative of spreadsheets and more a product of the mind called imagination. ~ Abraham Zaleznik,

1353:We can all do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1354:We have got to abandon the sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1355:All I ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1356:Always let your subordinates know that the honor will be all theirs if they succeed and the blame will be yours if they fail. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1357:If you can define the problem better than your target customer, they will automatically assume you have the solution.” —Jay Abraham ~ Pat Flynn,

1358:In the end, thought Sol, past logic and hope, it is dreams and the love of those dearest to us that form Abraham’s answer to God. ~ Dan Simmons,

1359:I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1360:Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1361:Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1362:Since these business owners are not constantly working to obsolesce themselves, they can rest assured that their competitors are. ~ Jay Abraham,

1363:The only ones untouched by the keen madness of the times were the children and the dogs. And the dogs seemed a little nervous. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1364:There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1365:The study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy ~ Abraham Maslow,

1366:The US patent system adds the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery and production of new and useful things ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1367:The way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1368:The world is agreed that labor is the source from which human wants are mainly supplied. There is no dispute upon this point. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1369:You have more of a feeling of personal resentment than I have. Perhaps, I have too little of it, but I never thought it paid. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1370:Abraham Lincoln. When he met Stowe, it is claimed that he said, "So you're the little woman that started this great war! ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe,

1371:As for me, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are now only the subtlest imaginable essences, which would not stain the morning sky. ~ Henry David Thoreau,

1372:Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1373:for we see Abraham the readier to acknowledge himself but dust and ashes the nearer he approaches to behold the glory of the Lord, ~ John Calvin,

1374:He wrote in the fly leaf: Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est! "That means 'Knowledge is power!' Oh, I do believe that, Marion. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1375:His argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by oiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1376:Only those will apprehend religion who can probe its depth, who can combine intuition and love with the rigor of method ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1377:President Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. ~ John C Maxwell,

1378:Students undergo a conversion in the third year of medical school - not pre-clinical to clinical, but pre-cynical to cynical. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1379:Such will be a great lesson of peace: teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by war. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1380:That’s all! Now either leave us alone or join us as a father rather than a receiver of sacrifices. You have the choice of Abraham! ~ Dan Simmons,

1381:The greatest lessons I have every learned were at my mother's knees... All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1382:The loss of illusions and the discovery of identity, though painful at first, can be ultimately exhilarating and strengthening. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1383:The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1384:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all - but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1385:To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1386:With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in,” Abraham Lincoln ~ Philip E Tetlock,

1387:creativeness comes partly out of the unconscious, i.e., is a healthy regression, a temporary turning away from the real world. ~ Abraham H Maslow,

1388:God would give Israel the land by conquest, primarily to fulfill the covenant He had made with Abraham and his descendants. ~ John F MacArthur Jr,

1389:Impending death had a way of unexpectedly unearthing the past so that it came together with the present in an unholy coupling. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1390:On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln rose with great and unaccustomed cheer to greet the final day of his life. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin,

1391:Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1392:The greatest determinant of greatness is going to be our ability to collaborate with others who have pieces of the puzzle we don't. ~ Jay Abraham,

1393:The ideal ratio is one computer to every five students; we are nowhere close to that percentage in a lot of schools in America. ~ Spencer Abraham,

1394:To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all - but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1395:All my ghosts had vanished; the retribution that they sought had been exacted. I had nothing more to give, and nothing to fear. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1396:America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1397:A world without time would be a world without God, a world existing in and by itself, without renewal, without a Creator. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1398:I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to
succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1399:in times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1400:Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1401:The first time I heard Ron Whitehead read I felt what I imagine those who heard Abraham Lincoln deliver The Gettysburg Address felt. ~ David Amram,

1402:The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1403:This human struggle and scramble for office, for a way to live without work, will finally test the strength of our institutions. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1404:Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1405:All the stuff that you visualized that was going to work so beautifully, you discover is trashed, so you jump to something else. ~ F Murray Abraham,

1406:A man has not the time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1407:As long as man sees religion as a source of satisfaction for his own needs, it is not God whom he serves but his own self. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1408:If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1409:I grew up and I found my purpose and it was to become a physician. My intent wasn't to save the world as much as to heal myself. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1410:Patience be damned. Let them suffer their distorted worldview. Your job is to preserve yourself, not to descend into their hole. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1411:(People) can never attain fulfillment, or sense of meaning, unless it is shared, unless it pertains to other human beings. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1412:There is nothing more inspiring than having a mind unfold before you. Let people teach who have a calling. It is never just a job. ~ Abraham Kaplan,

1413:As Abraham Lincoln or Socrates or someone else had also said, I'll eat fish and I'll eat meat, but there is some shit I will not eat. ~ Stephen King,

1414:...a world where a sparrow's fate and that of a man can be decided in the blink of a cat's eye, such is the true measure of time. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1415:Even in my first analysis of a depressive psychosis, I was immediately struck by its structural similarity with obsessional neurosis. ~ Karl Abraham,

1416:If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1417:It has long been recognized that the problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing, but to the abuse of a good thing. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1418:Only the flexibly creative person can really manage the future, Only the one who can face novelty with confidence and without fear. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1419:So astonishing was his physique that another man unabashedly described young Abraham Lincoln as “a cross between Venus and Hercules. ~ Bill O Reilly,

1420:...THAT FROM THESE HONORED DEAD WE TAKE INCREASED DEVOTION TO THAT CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY GAVE THE LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION;... ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1421:These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1422:To make the growth choice instead of the fear choice a dozen times a day is to move a dozen times a day towards self-actualisation. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1423:We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1424:An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave in not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1425:God bless the Methodist Church - bless all the churches - and blessed be God, Who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1426:He had so many ways of climbing into the tree house in his head, escaping the madness below, and pulling the ladder up behind him. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1427:I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1428:If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1429:If I had my way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my way this war would have been ended before this. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1430:I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this his almost chosen people. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1431:Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1432:Self-sufficiency, independence, the capacity to stand apart, to differ, to resist, and to defy-all are modes of being human. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1433:Solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions and the false alarms of society's hysteria, a period of cure and recovery. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1434:The prophet disdains those for whom God's presence is a comfort and security; to him it is a challenge, an incessant demand. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1435:Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1436:Abraham came not to sacrifice, but to know once and for all whether this God was a god to be trusted and obeyed. No other test would do. ~ Dan Simmons,

1437:Abraham had almost kissed me.
And I'd kicked him in the crotch.

That was a promising beginning to a ten-year work relationship. ~ Devon Monk,

1438:Abraham Maslow, I present to you Augustus Waters, whose existential curiosity dwarfed that of his well-fed, well-loved, healthy brethren. ~ John Green,

1439:Become aware of internal, subjective, sub-verbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction. ~ Abraham Maslow,

1440:Did Stanton say I was a damned fool? Then I dare say I must be one, for Stanton is generally right and he always says what he means. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1441:Faced with the mind-surpassing grandeur of the universe, we cannot but admit that there is meaning which is greater than man. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1442:Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, and the universe becomes a market place for you. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1443:Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the Providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1444:I believe the declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1445:I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1446:If we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1447:I'm just living my life and I’m being the best mother that I can and showing that on Teen Mom because that's what that show is about. ~ Farrah Abraham,

1448:I’m saying there is evil in the world,” Master Kit said, hefting the box on his hip, “and doubt is the weapon that guards against it. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1449:In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1450:I think we have reason to thank God for Abraham Lincoln. With all his deficiencies, it must be admitted that he has grown continually. ~ Lydia M Child,

1451:Nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1452:No man has a right to judge Andrew Johnson in any respect who has not suffered as much and done as much as he for the Nation's sake. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1453:Orthodox science today attempts to be free not only of values but also of emotions. As youngsters would say, it tries to be "cool". ~ Abraham H Maslow,

1454:The press has no better friend than I am, no one who is more ready to acknowledge . . . its tremendous power for both good and evil. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1455:The very spot where grew the bread that formed my bones, I see. How strange, old field, on thee to tread, and feel I'm part of thee. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1456:We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1457:When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1458:Abraham Lincoln suggested never presume to know what God's will is, and I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words. ~ Sarah Palin,

1459:[God] has established for you [the Arabs] the same religion enjoined on Noah, on Abraham, on Moses, and on Jesus,” the Quran says (42:13). ~ Reza Aslan,

1460:He had so many ways of climbing into the tree house in his head, escaping the madness below, and pulling the ladder up behind him... ~ Abraham Verghese,

1461:Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1462:Love,' Asa said, 'is like a pigeon shitting over a crowd.'
'How so?'
'Where it lands hasn't got much to do with who deserves it. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1463:Never assume you can survive the future because you've survived the past. Everyone thinks that, and they've all been wrong eventually. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1464:no man is free who is not a master of himself, that the more liberties we enjoy, the more discipline we need.46 Laissez-faire, ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1465:She felt the familiar calmness of an emergency, but she understood the falseness of that feeling, now that it was her life at stake. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1466:The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1467:The work on weekdays and the rest on the seventh day are correlated. The Sabbath is the inspirer, the other days the inspired. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1468:To secure to each labourer the whole product of his labour, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any good government. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1469:Unless one learns how to relish the taste of Sabbath … one will be unable to enjoy the taste of eternity in the world to come. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1470:Upon the subject of education ... I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1471:You already know I desire that neither Father or Mother shall be in want of any comfort either in health or sickness while they live. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1472:Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim submitting to God; he was not of the polytheists. ~ Anonymous,

1473:I always wondered what hearing one's own obituary might sound like, and I sort of feel like I may have just heard part of it at least. ~ Spencer Abraham,

1474:I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light I have. —Abraham Lincoln ~ Anonymous,

1475:I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1476:There are certain men and women who, from the minute they step in front of a camera, that's exactly where they belong. Connery's one. ~ F Murray Abraham,

1477:There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine! ~ Abraham Kuyper,

1478:We know enough at this moment to say that the God of Abraham is not only unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man. ~ Sam Harris,

1479:As a nation we began by declaring that all me are created equal. We now practically read it, all men are created equal except Negroes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1480:Het begin van geluk is gelegen in het begrip dat het leven zonder verwondering niet de moeite waard is geleefd te worden. (p.56) ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel,

1481:I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow can't be worse than today was." "Possibility is a wide field, dear. Can't is a word for small imaginations. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1482:I never tire of reading Tom Paine. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1483:Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1484:No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1485:O LORD, d God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that e you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that f ~ Anonymous,

1486:Racism is man’s gravest threat to man—the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reasons. —Abraham J. Heschel, rabbi and philosopher (1907–72) ~ Brenda Novak,

1487:the most defining trait of great entrepreneurs in the twenty-first century will be the ability to creatively collaborate with other people, ~ Jay Abraham,

1488:There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed-she had reached that point. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1489:There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed—she had reached that point. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1490:Yet I had invested nothing up front. It was just a matter of recognizing that one person’s distress is another person’s opportunity. When ~ Jay Abraham,

1491:You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional - I think differently. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1492:As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now? ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1493:God will judge us by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings. I don't think God cares what doctrine we embrace. ~ Abraham Verghese,

1494:I am not bound to win, I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light that I have. —Abraham Lincoln ~ Jon Gordon,

1495:If you have been given a word from God, you must continue in that direction until it comes to pass (even twenty five years like Abraham). ~ Henry Blackaby,

1496:I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1497:I’m not drunk,” Cithrin said. “You aren’t,” Yardem agreed. “Then why can’t I have another glass?” “Because that’s how you stay not drunk. ~ Daniel Abraham,

1498:It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

1499:Most men have no purpose but to exist, Abraham; to pass quietly through history as minor characters upon a stage they cannot even see ~ Seth Grahame Smith,

1500:No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive. ~ Abraham Lincoln,

IN CHAPTERS [127/127]

27 Christianity
25 Islam
17 Poetry
12 Psychology
12 Occultism
4 Integral Yoga
3 Sufism
3 Kabbalah
2 Baha i Faith
1 Yoga
1 Fiction
1 Alchemy

25 Muhammad
15 Carl Jung
14 Saint Augustine of Hippo
8 Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
7 Anonymous
3 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
3 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
3 Al-Ghazali
2 William Wordsworth
2 Walt Whitman
2 George Van Vrekhem
2 Baha u llah
2 Aleister Crowley
2 A B Purani

25 Quran
13 The Bible
12 City of God
8 Mysterium Coniunctionis
5 The Secret Doctrine
5 Talks
4 Aion
3 The Alchemy of Happiness
3 General Principles of Kabbalah
2 Wordsworth - Poems
2 Whitman - Poems
2 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
2 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
2 Preparing for the Miraculous
2 Liber ABA
2 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo

1.002 - The Heifer, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
124. And when his Lord tested Abraham with certain words, and he fulfilled them. He said, “I am making you a leader of humanity.” He said, “And my descendants?” He said, “My pledge does not include the wrongdoers.”
125. And We made the House a focal point for the people, and a sanctuary. Use the shrine of Abraham as a place of prayer. And We commissioned Abraham and Ishmael, “Sanctify My House for those who circle around it, and those who seclude themselves in it, and those who kneel and prostrate.”
126. When Abraham said, “O My Lord, make this a peaceful land, and provide its people with fruits—whoever of them believes in God and the Last Day.” He said, “And whoever disbelieves, I will give him a little enjoyment, then I will consign him to the punishment of the Fire; how miserable the destiny!”
127. As Abraham raises the foundations of the House, together with Ishmael, “Our Lord, accept it from us, You are the Hearer, the Knower.
128. Our Lord, and make us submissive to You, and from our descendants a community submissive to You. And show us our rites, and accept our repentance. You are the Acceptor of Repentance, the Merciful.
--
130. Who would forsake the religion of Abraham, except he who fools himself? We chose him in this world, and in the Hereafter he will be among the righteous.
131. When his Lord said to him, “Submit!” He said, “I have submitted to the Lord of the Worlds.”
132. And Abraham exhorted his sons, and Jacob, “O my sons, God has chosen this religion for you, so do not die unless you have submitted.”
133. Or were you witnesses when death approached Jacob, and he said to his sons, “What will you worship after Me?” They said, “We will worship your God, and the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac; One God; and to Him we submit.”
134. That was a community that has passed; for them is what they have earned, and for you is what you have earned; and you will not be questioned about what they used to do.
135. And they say, “Be Jews or Christians, and you will be guided.” Say, “Rather, the religion of Abraham, the Monotheist; he was not an idolater.”
136. Say, “We believe in God; and in what was revealed to us; and in what was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus; and in what was given to the prophets—from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we surrender.”
137. If they believe in the same as you have believed in, then they have been guided. But if they turn away, then they are in schism. God will protect you against them; for He is the Hearer, the Knower.
--
140. Or do you say that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs were Jews or Christians? Say, “Do you know better, or God?” And who does greater wrong than he who conceals a testimony he has from God? God is not unaware of what you do.
141. That was a community that has passed. To them is what they have earned, and to you is what you have earned. And you will not be questioned about what they used to do.
--
258. Have you not considered him who argued with Abraham about his Lord, because God had given him sovereignty? Abraham said, “My Lord is He who gives life and causes death.” He said, “I give life and cause death.” Abraham said, “God brings the sun from the East, so bring it from the West,” so the blasphemer was confounded. God does not guide the wrongdoing people.
259. Or like him who passed by a town collapsed on its foundations. He said, “How can God revive this after its demise?” Thereupon God caused him to die for a hundred years, and then resurrected him. He said, “For how long have you tarried?” He said, “I have tarried for a day, or part of a day.” He said, “No. You have tarried for a hundred years. Now look at your food and your drink—it has not spoiled—and look at your donkey. We will make you a wonder for mankind. And look at the bones, how We arrange them, and then clothe them with flesh.” So when it became clear to him, he said, “I know that God has power over all things.”
260. And when Abraham said, “My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.” He said, “Have you not believed?” He said, “Yes, but to put my heart at ease.” He said, “Take four birds, and incline them to yourself, then place a part on each hill, then call to them; and they will come rushing to you. And know that God is Powerful and Wise.”
261. The parable of those who spend their wealth in God’s way is that of a grain that produces seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. God multiplies for whom He wills. God is Bounteous and Knowing.

1.003 - Family of Imran, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
33. God chose Adam, and Noah, and the family of Abraham, and the family of Imran, over all mankind.
34. Offspring one of the other. God is Hearer and Knower.
--
65. O People of the Book! Why do you argue about Abraham, when the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed until after him? Will you not reason?
66. Here you are—you argue about things you know, but why do you argue about things you do not know? God knows, and you do not know.
67. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a Monotheist, a Muslim. And he was not of the Polytheists.
68. The people most deserving of Abraham are those who followed him, and this prophet, and those who believe. God is the Guardian of the believers.
69. A party of the People of the Book would love to lead you astray, but they only lead themselves astray, and they do not realize it.
--
84. Say, “We believe in God, and in what was revealed to us; and in what was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses, and Jesus, and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.”
85. Whoever seeks other than Islam as a religion, it will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers.
--
95. Say, “God has spoken the truth, so follow the religion of Abraham the Monotheist; he was not a Pagan.”
96. The first house established for mankind is the one at Bekka; blessed, and guidance for all people.
97. In it are evident signs; the Station of Abraham. Whoever enters it attains security. Pilgrimage to the House is a duty to God for all who can make the journey. But as for those who refuse—God is Independent of the worlds.
98. Say, “O People of the Scripture, why do you reject the Revelations of God, when God witnesses what you do?”

1.004 - Women, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
54. Or do they envy the people for what God has given them of His grace? We have given the family of Abraham the Book and wisdom, and We have given them a great kingdom.
55. Among them are those who believed in it, and among them are those who held back from it. Hell is a sufficient Inferno.
--
125. And who is better in religion than he who submits himself wholly to God, and is a doer of good, and follows the faith of Abraham the Monotheist? God has chosen Abraham for a friend.
126. To God belongs what is in the heavens and what is on earth, and God encompasses everything.
--
163. We have inspired you, as We had inspired Noah and the prophets after him. And We inspired Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Patriarchs, and Jesus, and Job, and Jonah, and Aaron, and Solomon. And We gave David the Psalms.
164. Some messengers We have already told you about, while some messengers We have not told you about. And God spoke to Moses directly.

1.006 - Livestock, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
74. Abraham said to his father Azar, “Do you take idols for gods? I see that you and your people are in evident error.”
75. Thus We showed Abraham the empire of the heavens and the earth, that he might be one of those with certainty.
76. When the night fell over him, he saw a planet. He said, “This is my lord.” But when it set, he said, “I do not love those that set.”
--
83. That was Our argument which We gave to Abraham against his people. We elevate by degrees whomever We will. Your Lord is Wise and Informed.
84. And We gave him Isaac and Jacob—each of them We guided. And We guided Noah previously; and from his descendants David, and Solomon, and Job, and Joseph, and Moses, and Aaron. Thus We reward the righteous.
--
161. Say, “My Lord has guided me to a straight path, an upright religion, the creed of Abraham the Monotheist, who was not a polytheist.”
162. Say, “My prayer and my worship, and my life and my death, are devoted to God, the Lord of the Worlds.

1.009 - Repentance, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
70. Have they not heard the stories of those before them? The people of Noah, and Aad, and Thamood; and the people of Abraham, and the inhabitants of Median, and the Overturned Cities? Their messengers came to them with the clear proofs. God never wronged them, but they used to wrong their own selves.
71. The believing men and believing women are friends of one another. They advocate virtue, forbid evil, perform the prayers, practice charity, and obey God and His Messenger. These—God will have mercy on them. God is Noble and Wise.
--
114. Abraham asked forgiveness for his father only because of a promise he had made to him. But when it became clear to him that he was an enemy of God, he disowned him. Abraham was kind and clement.
115. God would never lead a people astray, after He had guided them, until He makes clear to them what they should guard against. God has knowledge of all things.

1.011 - Hud, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
69. Our messengers came to Abraham with good news. They said, “Peace.” He said, “Peace.” Soon after, he came with a roasted calf.
70. But when he saw their hands not reaching towards it, he became suspicious of them, and conceived a fear of them. They said, “Do not fear, we were sent to the people of Lot.”
--
74. When Abraham's fear subsided, and the good news had reached him, he started pleading with Us concerning the people of Lot.
75. Abraham was gentle, kind, penitent.
76. “O Abraham, refrain from this. The command of your Lord has come; they have incurred an irreversible punishment.”
77. And when Our envoys came to Lot, he was anxious for them, and concerned for them. He said, “This is a dreadful day.”

1.012 - Joseph, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
6. And thus your Lord will choose you, and will teach you the interpretation of events, and will complete His blessing upon you and upon the family of Jacob, as He has completed it before upon your forefathers Abraham and Isaac. Your Lord is Knowing and Wise.
7. In Joseph and his brothers are lessons for the seekers.
--
38. “And I have followed the faith of my forefathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. It is not for us to associate anything with God. This is by virtue of God’s grace upon us and upon the people, but most people do not give thanks.
39. “O My fellow inmates, are diverse lords better, or God, the One, the Supreme?”

1.014 - Abraham, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
object:1.014 - Abraham
class:chapter
--
35. Recall that Abraham said, “O my Lord, make this land peaceful, and keep me and my sons from worshiping idols.”
36. “My Lord, they have led many people astray. Whoever follows me belongs with me; and whoever disobeys me—You are Forgiving and Merciful.

1.015 - The Rock, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
51. And inform them of the guests of Abraham.
52. When they entered upon him, and said, “Peace.” He said, “We are wary of you.”

1.016 - The Bee, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
120. Abraham was an exemplary leader, devoted to God, a monotheist, and was not of the polytheists.
121. Thankful for His blessings. He chose him, and guided him to a straight path.
--
123. Then We inspired you: “Follow the religion of Abraham, the Monotheist. He was not an idol-worshiper.”
124. The Sabbath was decreed only for those who differed about it. Your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection regarding their differences.

1.019 - Mary, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
41. And mention in the Scripture Abraham. He was a man of truth, a prophet.
42. He said to his father, “O my father, why do you worship what can neither hear, nor see, nor benefit you in any way?
--
46. He said, “Are you renouncing my gods, O Abraham? If you do not desist, I will stone you. So leave me alone for a while.”
47. He said, “Peace be upon you. I will ask my Lord to forgive you; He has been Kind to me.
--
58. These are some of the prophets God has blessed, from the descendants of Adam, and from those We carried with Noah, and from the descendants of Abraham and Israel, and from those We guided and selected. Whenever the revelations of the Most Gracious are recited to them, they would fall down, prostrating and weeping.
59. But they were succeeded by generations who lost the prayers and followed their appetites. They will meet perdition.

1.01 - Adam Kadmon and the Evolution, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
and the dominant Abrahamic religions. It is only recently
that authors like Martin Bernal (Black Athena) and Christos
--
Abrahamic tradition, by which the Western societies are
still profoundly influenced. Of the wisdom traditions and

1.01 - Historical Survey, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
About 1240 a.d. was born Abraham Abulafia, who became a celebrated figure - bringing, however, a great deal of dis- repute to the name of this theosophy. He studied philo- logy* medicine, and philosophy, as well as those few books on the Qabalah which were available at the time. He soon perceived that the Pythagorean Number Philosophy was identical with that expounded in the Sepher Yetsirah, and later, becoming dissatisfied with academic research, he turned towards that aspect of Qabalah termed nbsp n'ova or the Practical Qabalah, which, to-day, we term
Magick. Unfortunately, the Qabalists in the public eye at that time were not acquainted with the developed specialized technique that is now available, derived as it is from the Collegii ad Spiritum Sanctum. The result was that
--
Abraham Ibn Wakar, Pico di Mirandola, Reuchlin,
Moses Cordovero, and Isaac Luria, are a few of the more

1.01 - On knowledge of the soul, and how knowledge of the soul is the key to the knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
Think not, thou seeker after the divine mysteries! that the window of the heart is never opened except in sleep and after death. On the contrary, if a person calls into exercise, in perfection, holy zeal and austerities, and purifies his heart from the defilement of blameable affections, and then sits down in a retired spot, abandons the use of his external senses, and occupies himself with calling out "O God ! O God!" his heart will come into harmony with the invisible world, he will no longer receive notions from the material world, and nothing will be present in his heart but the exalted God. In this revelation of the invisible world, the windows of the heart are opened, and what others may have seen in a dream, he in this state sees in reality. The spirits of angels and prophets are manifested to him and he holds intercourse with them. The hidden things of earth and heaven are uncovered to him, and to whomsoever these things are revealed, mighty wonders are shown, that are beyond description. As the prophet of God says: "I turned towards the earth, and I saw the east and the west." And God says in his word: "And thus we caused Abraham to see the kingdom of heaven and earth,"1 which is an example of this kind of revelation. [25] Probably the knowledge of all the prophets was obtained in this way, for it was not obtained by learning....
When the heart is free from worldly lusts, from the animosities of society and from the distraction occasioned by the senses, the vision of God is possible. And this course is adopted by the Mystics.1 It is also the path followed by the prophets. But it is permitted also to acquire the practice of it by learning, and this is the way adopted by the theologians. This is also an exalted way, though in comparison with the former, its results are insignificant and contracted. Many distinguished men have attained these revelations by experience and the demonstration of reasoning. Still let every one who fails of obtaining this knowledge either by means of purity of desire or of demonstration of reasoning, take care and not deny its existence to those who are possessed of it, so that they may not be repelled from the low degree they have attained, and their conduct become a snare to them in the way of truth. These things which we have mentioned constitute the wonders of the heart and show its grandeur.

1.01 - The Lord of hosts, #Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice, #Anonymous, #Various
The decade 6 out of nothing is analogous to that of the ten fingers (and toes) of the human body, five parallel to five, and in the centre of which is the covenant with the only One, by the word of the tongue and the rite of Abraham.
SECTION 3.

1.021 - The Prophets, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
51. We gave Abraham his integrity formerly, and We knew him well.
52. When he said to his father and his people, “What are these statues to which you are devoted?”
--
60. They said, “We heard a youth mentioning them. He is called Abraham.”
61. They said, “Bring him before the eyes of the people, so that they may witness.”
62. They said, “Are you the one who did this to our gods, O Abraham?”
63. He said, “But it was this biggest of them that did it. Ask them, if they can speak.”
--
69. We said, “O fire, be coolness and safety upon Abraham.”
70. They planned to harm him, but We made them the worst losers.

1.022 - The Pilgrimage, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
26. We showed Abraham the location of the House: “Do not associate anything with Me; and purify My House for those who circle around, and those who stand to pray, and those who kneel and prostrate.”
27. And announce the pilgrimage to humanity. They will come to you on foot, and on every transport. They will come from every distant point.
--
43. And the people of Abraham, and the people of Lot.
44. And the inhabitants of Median. And Moses was denied. Then I reprieved those who disbelieved, but then I seized them. So how was My rejection?
--
78. And strive for God, with the striving due to Him. He has chosen you, and has not burdened you in religion—the faith of your father Abraham. It is he who named you Muslims before, and in this. So that the Messenger may be a witness over you, and you may be witnesses over the people. So pray regularly, and give regular charity, and cleave to God. He is your Protector. What an excellent Protector, and what an excellent Helper.

1.026 - The Poets, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
69. And relate to them the story of Abraham.
70. When he said to his father and his people, “What do you worship?”

1.029 - The Spider, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
16. And Abraham, when he said to his people, “Worship God, and fear Him. That is better for you, if you only knew.
17. You worship idols besides God, and you fabricate falsehoods. Those you worship, instead of God, cannot provide you with livelihood. So seek your livelihood from God, and worship Him, and thank Him. To Him you will be returned.”
--
31. And when Our envoys brought Abraham the good news, they said, “We are going to destroy the people of this town; its people are wrongdoers.”
32. He said, “Yet Lot is in it.” They said, “We are well aware of who is in it. We will save him, and his family, except for his wife, who will remain behind.”

1.02 - On the Knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
In the same manner as there is falsity, in the way in which the material world is regarded by the natural man and the astrologer, there is also a diversity of views among those who survey the spiritual world. There are some who, just as they are upon the point of entering upon the vision of the spiritual world, seeing that they discover nothing, descend back to their old sphere. There is also a difference of view between those who do succeed in reaching the spiritual or invisible world by meditation, for some have an immense amount of light veiled from them. Every [51] one in the sphere to which he attains, is still veiled with a veil. The light of some is as of a twinkling star. Others see as by the light of the moon. Others are illuminated as if by the world-effulgent sun. To some the invisible world is even perfectly revealed, as we read in the holy word of God: "And thus we caused Abraham to see the heaven and the earth."1 And hence it is that the prophet says, "There are before God seventy veils of light; if he should unveil them, the light of his countenance would burn everything that came into his presence." 2
Still the miserable naturalist, who ascribes effects to the influences of nature, speaks correctly. For, if natural causes had no operation, the art of medicine would have been useless, and the holy law would not have allowed to have recourse to medical treatment. The mistake which the naturalist makes, is that he contracts his sphere of vision, and is like the lame ass, that left his load at the first stopping place. He does not know that nature also is subjected to the hand of the power of God, and is a kind of humble servant, such as a shoe is to the ass. The astrologer also says, that the sun is a star, which causes heat and light upon the earth. If there had been no sun, the distinction between day and night would not have existed, and vegetables and grain could not have been produced. The moon also is a star, and if there bad been no moon, how many things connected with the requirements of the Law of the Koran, would have been impracticable, such as fasting, alms and pilgrimage, since there would have been no distinction of weeks, months and years. The colors and perfumes of herbs and fruits exist also from its influence. The sun is warm and dry; the moon is cold and moist. Saturn [52] is cold and dry, Venus is warm and moist. And the school of astrologers is to be credited in these representations; but when they ascribe all events to influences proceeding from the heavenly bodies, they are liars. They do not perceive that they all alike are subject to the almighty power of God as God says in his word: "And the sun, moon and stars are subject to his command." 1 There is also an influence exercised by the stars, which resembles the control, exercised by the nerve that comes from the brain over the finger in writing; while the force of nature is like the control exerted upon the pen by the finger....

1.033 - The Confederates, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
7. Recall that We received a pledge from the prophets, and from you, and from Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus son of Mary. We received from them a solemn pledge.
8. That He may ask the sincere about their sincerity. He has prepared for the disbelievers a painful punishment.

1.037 - The Aligners, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
83. Of his kind was Abraham.
84. When he came to his Lord with a sound heart.
--
104. We called out to him, “O Abraham!
105. You have fulfilled the vision.” Thus We reward the doers of good.
--
109. Peace be upon Abraham.
110. Thus We reward the doers of good.

1.038 - Saad, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
45. And mention Our servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—endowed with ability and vision.
46. We distinguished them with a distinct quality: the remembrance of the Home.

1.03 - On exile or pilgrimage, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
4 Abraham.
5 Genesis xii, 1.

1.042 - Consultation, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
13. He prescribed for you the same religion He enjoined upon Noah, and what We inspired to you, and what We enjoined upon Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus: “You shall uphold the religion, and be not divided therein.” As for the idolaters, what you call them to is outrageous to them. God chooses to Himself whom He wills, and He guides to Himself whoever repents.
14. They became divided only after knowledge came to them, out of resentment among themselves. Were it not for a predetermined decision from your Lord, judgment would have been pronounced between them. Indeed, those who were made to inherit the Book after them are in grave doubt about it.

1.043 - Decorations, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
26. When Abraham said to his father and his people, “I am innocent of what you worship.
27. Except for He who created me, for He will guide me.”

1.04 - The First Circle, Limbo Virtuous Pagans and the Unbaptized. The Four Poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. The Noble Castle of Philosophy., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,
Israel with his father and his children,

1.051 - The Spreaders, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
24. Has the story of Abraham’s honorable guests reached you?
25. When they entered upon him, they said, “Peace.” He said, “Peace, strangers.”

1.053 - The Star, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
37. And of Abraham, who fulfilled?
38. That no soul bears the burdens of another soul.

1.057 - Iron, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
26. We sent Noah and Abraham, and established in their line Prophethood and the Scripture. Some of them are guided, but many of them are sinners.
27. Then We sent in their wake Our messengers, and followed up with Jesus son of Mary, and We gave him the Gospel, and instilled in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy. But as for the monasticism which they invented—We did not ordain it for them—only to seek God’s approval. But they did not observe it with its due observance. So We gave those of them who believed their reward, but many of them are sinful.

1.05 - Christ, A Symbol of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
it then stand!" 64 The midrash on Genesis 18 : 23 (Abraham's
plea for Sodom) says (Abraham speaking): "If thou desirest the
world to endure, there can be no absolute justice, while if thou

1.05 - On the Love of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
believers, "He loves them and they love Him,"[1] and the Prophet said, "Till a man loves God and His Prophet more than anything else he has not the right faith." When the angel of death came to take the soul of Abraham the latter said, "Have you ever seen a friend take his friend's life?" God answered him, "Have you ever seen a friend unwilling to see his friend?" Then Abraham said, "O Azrael! take my soul!" The following prayer was taught by the Prophet to his companions, "O God, grant me to love Thee and to love those who love Thee, and whatsoever brings me nearer to Thy love, and make Thy love more precious to me than cold water to the thirsty." Hassan Basri used to say, "He who knows God loves Him, and he who knows the world hates it."
We come now to treat of love in its essential nature. Love may be defined as an inclination to that which is pleasant. This is apparent in the case of the five senses, each of which may be said to love that which gives it delight; thus the eye loves beautiful forms, the ear music, etc. This is a kind of love we share with the
--
On another occasion Bayazid said, "Were God to offer thee the intimacy with Himself of Abraham, the power in prayer of Moses, the spirituality of Jesus, yet keep thy face directed to Him only, for He has treasures surpassing even these." One day a friend said to him, "For thirty years I have fasted by day and prayed by night and have found none of that spiritual joy of which thou speakest." Bayazid answered, "If you fasted and prayed for three hundred years, you would never find it." "How is that?" asked the other. "Because," said Bayazid, "your selfishness is acting as a veil between you and God." "Tell me, then, the cure." "It is a cure which you cannot carry out." However, as his friend pressed him to reveal it, Bayazid said, "Go to the nearest barber and have your beard shaved; strip yourself
{p. 129}

1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
social identity (descent from Abraham) is of no spiritual importance....
The dialectic of metanoia and sin splits the world into the kingdom of genuine identity, presented as
--
Jehovahs comm and to Abraham: Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
fathers house, unto a land that I will show thee (Genesis 12:1), which the midrash (Bin Gorion, Sagen
der Juden, Vol. II, Die Erzvater, XI) interprets as meaning that Abraham is to destory the gods of his
father. The message of Jesus is only an extension of the same conflict, and it repeats itself in every
--
before Abraham was made, I am (John 8:58). This is supposed to show that the stone is without
beginning and has its [primary existence] from all eternity, and that it too is without end and will exist in
--
Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. (Genesis 28:12-13).
194
--
but the same pattern recurs. Abraham is told to reject his son Ishmael because a younger son (Isaac) is to be born to
him. Isaacs eldest son Esau loses his birthright to Jacob through some rather dubious maneuvers on Jacobs part,
--
Passing over the story of Noah, which adds the sea to the images of disaster, the first rise is that of Abraham, called
out of the city of Ur in Mesopotamia to a Promised Land in the west. This introduces the pastoral era of the
--
And the deliverers of Israel Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, the judges, David, and Solomon are all prototypes of
the Messiah or final deliverer....As the various declines of Israel through apostasy and the like are not acts so much

1.060 - The Woman Tested, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
4. You have had an excellent example in Abraham and those with him; when they said to their people, “We are quit of you, and what you worship apart from God. We denounce you. Enmity and hatred has surfaced between us and you, forever, until you believe in God alone.” Except for the words of Abraham to his father, “I will ask forgiveness for you, though I have no power from God to do anything for you.” “Our Lord, in You we trust, and to You we repent, and to You is the ultimate resort.
5. Our Lord, do not make us a target for those who disbelieve, and forgive us, our Lord. You are indeed the Mighty and Wise.”

1.06 - The Sign of the Fishes, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
ments; for instance, Rabbi Abraham ben Hiyya, who died about
1136, is said to have decreed that the Messiah was to be ex-

1.06 - The Three Mothers or the First Elements, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
When 44 the patriarch Abraham comprehended the great truism, revolved it in his mind, conceived it perfectly, made careful investigations and profound inquiries, pondered upon it and succeeded in contemplations, the Lord of the Universe appeared to him, called him his friend, made with him a covenant between the ten fingers of his hands, which is the covenant of the tongue, 45 and the covenant between the ten toes of his feet, which is the covenant of circumcision, and said of him: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee." (Jer. I, 5.)

1.087 - The Most High, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
19. The Scriptures of Abraham and Moses.

1.10 - Theodicy - Nature Makes No Mistakes, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
The God here put into question is the Abrahamic God
who stands outside the creation brought by him into be-
--
of the Abrahamic religions may say that he is an abstract
God, rare mystics in these religions may say that he can be

1.14 - Bibliography, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Eleazar, R. Abraham. Uraltes Chymisches Werk. Leipzig, 1760.
Ephrem the Syrian, Saint. Hymni et sermones. Edited by Thomas

1.15 - Index, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Abraham, 59
Abraham ben Hiyya, Rabbi, 74
Abu Ma'shar/Abu Mansor, see
--
Eleazar, Abraham, 131
electron, 187/1

1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
In the Bible God says I AM before Abraham. He does not say
I was but I AM.

1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
In the Bible God says "I AM before Abraham." He does not say
"I was" but "I AM."

1f.lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Abraham Whipple, a privateersman of phenomenal boldness and energy who
could be counted on to lead in any active measures needed. These men,

1.jr - Last Night My Soul Cried O Exalted Sphere Of Heaven, #Rumi - Poems, #Jalaluddin Rumi, #Poetry
Now happy, now unhappy, like Abraham in the fire; at once king and beggar like Ebrahim-e Adham.
In your form you are terrifying, yet your state is full of anguish: you turn round like a millstone and writhe like a snake.

1.mdl - The Gates (from Openings), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Daniel Chanan Matt Original Language Aramaic He [Abraham] was sitting in the opening of the tent.... Sarah heard from the opening of the tent. (Genesis 18:1, 10) Rabbi Judah opened "'Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land' (Proverbs 31:23). Come and see: The Blessed Holy One has ascended in glory. He is hidden, concealed, far beyond. There is no one in the world, nor has there ever been, who can understand His wisdom or withstand Him. He is hidden, concealed, transcendent, beyond, beyond. The beings up above and the creatures down below-- none of them can comprehend. All they can say is: "Blessed be the Presence of YHVH in His place' (Ezekiel 3:12) The ones below proclaim that He is above: 'His Presence is above the heavens' (Psalms 113:4) the ones above proclaim that He is below: 'Your Presence is over all the earth' (Psalms 57:12). Finally all of them, above and below, declare: 'Blessed be the Presence of YHVH wherever He is!' For He is unknowable. No one has ever been able to identify Him. How, then, can you say: 'Her husband is known in the gates'? Her husband is the Blessed Holy One! Indeed, He is known in the gates. He is known and grasped to the degree that one opens the gates of imagination! The capacity to connect with the spirit of wisdom, to imagine in one's heart-mind-- this is how God becomes known. Therefore 'Her husband is known in the gates,' through the gates of imagination. But that He be known as He really is? No one has ever been able to attain such knowledge of Him." Rabbi Shim'on said "'Her husband is known in the gates.' Who are these gates? The ones addressed in the Psalm: 'O gates, lift up your heads! Be lifted up, openings of eternity, so the King of Glory may come!' (Psalms 24:7) Through these gates, these spheres on high, the Blessed Holy One becomes known. Were it not so, no one could commune with Him. Come and see: Neshamah of a human being is unknowable except through limbs of the body, subordinates of neshamah who carry out what she designs. Thus she is known and unknown. The Blessed Holy One too is known and unknown. For He is Neshamah of neshamah, Pneuma of pneuma, completely hidden away; but through these gates, openings for neshumah, the Blessed Holy One becomes known. Come and see: There is opening within opening, level beyond level. Through these the Glory of God becomes known. 'The opening of the tent' is the opening of Righteousness, as the Psalmist says: 'Open for me the gates of righteousness...' (Psalms 118:19). This is the first opening to enter. Through this opening, all other high openings come into view. One who attains the clarity of this opening discovers all the other openings, for all of them abide here. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment: (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Daniel Chanan Matt <

1.raa - A Holy Tabernacle in the Heart (from Life of the Future World), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.raa - And the letter is longing, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.raa - And YHVH spoke to me when I saw His name, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.raa - Circles 1 (from Life of the Future World), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.raa - Circles 2 (from Life of the Future World), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.raa - Circles 3 (from Life of the Future World), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.raa - Circles 4 (from Life of the Future World), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.raa - Their mystery is (from Life of the Future World), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
subject class:Poetry

1.rajh - God Pursues Me Everywhere, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
subject class:Poetry
--
English version by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Original Language English, Yiddish God pursues me everywhere, Enmeshes me in glances, And blinds my sightless back like flaming sun. God, like a forest dense, pursues me. My lips are ever tender, mute, so amazed, So like a child lost in an ancient sacred grove. God pursues me like a silent shudder. I wish for tranquility and rest -- He urges; come! And see -- how visions walk like the homeless on the streets. My thoughts walk about like a vagrant mystery -- Walks through the world's long corridor. At times I see God's featureless face hovering over me. God pursues me in the streetcars and cafes Every shining apple is my crystal sphere to see How mysteries are born and vision came to be. - from "Human, God's Ineffable Name," by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, freely rendered by Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi. Available from the Reb Zalman Legacy Project

1.rajh - Intimate Hymn, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
subject class:Poetry
--
English version by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Original Language English, Yiddish From word to word I roam, from dawn to dusk. Dream in, dream out -- I pass myself and towns, A human satellite. I wait, am hopeful, as one who waits at the rock For the spring to well forth and ever well on. I feel as bright as if I tented somewhere in the Milky Way. To urge the world to feel I walk through lonesome solitudes. All around me lightning explodes sparks from my glance To reveal all light, unveil faces everywhere. Godward, onward to the final weighing overcoming heavy weight with thirst. Constantly, the longings of all born call out, "Is anyone around?" I know each one is HE, but in my heart there writhes a tear; When of men and rocks and trees I hear; All plead "Feel us" All beg "See us" God! Lend me your eyes! I came to be, to sow the seed of sight in the world, To unmask the God who disguised Himself as world-- And yes, I wait to be the first to announce "The Dawn." - from "Human, God's Ineffable Name," by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, freely rendered by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi. Available from the Reb Zalman Legacy Project <

1.rajh - The Word Most Precious, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
author class:Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
subject class:Poetry
--
English version by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Original Language English, Yiddish Each single moment greets my life, A message clear from timelessness. All names and words recall to me The word most precious: God! Pebbles twinkle up like stars, Silent raindrops echo true, What all creation echoes too, My Father, Teacher, word from You. My All, Your Name is my safe refuge. Without Your nearness I am naught, So lonely, saddening, is that thought. All I possess, is just this word -- If forgetfulness would snatch a name from me Let it be mine not Thine, So screams in dread that heart of mine. With every word I nickname You, I call you 'Woods' and 'Night' and 'Ah' and 'Yes,' With all my instants weaving sacred time A bit of ever-always is my gift to You. Would that for Eternity I could celebrate a holiday for You. Not just a day -- a lifetime. Please! How insignificant my thrift and gift Of offerings and adoration. What can my efforts do for You But this: to wander everywhere and bear a living witness that shows I care. - from "Human, God's Ineffable Name," by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, freely rendered by Rabbi Zalman M. Schacter-Shalomi. Available from the Reb Zalman Legacy Project <

1.whitman - O Captain! My Captain!, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Abraham Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth, almost exactly four years after the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter.

1.whitman - When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated April 14, 1865, in the Ford Theatre, Washington, D.C. His funeral cortege started processing from there to Springfield, Illinois.

1.ww - Book Sixth [Cambridge and the Alps], #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
To Abraham of old. The supper done,
With flowing cups elate and happy thoughts

1.ww - It Is a Beauteous Evening, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year,
And worship'st at the Temple's inner shrine,

2.02 - Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
In the words of Abraham Maslow, "He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail." This is another factor that affects the "young lady/old lady" perception difference. Right-brain and left-brain people tend to look at things in different ways.
We live in a primarily left-brain-dominant world, where words and measurement and logic are enthroned, and the more creative, intuitive, sensing, artistic aspect of our nature is often subordinated.

2.02 - THE SCINTILLA, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[43] Alchemy, too, has its doctrine of the scintilla. In the first place it is the fiery centre of the earth, where the four elements project their seed in ceaseless movement. For all things have their origin in this source, and nothing in the whole world is born save from this source. In the centre dwells the Archaeus, the servant of nature, whom Paracelsus also calls Vulcan, identifying him with the Adech, the great man.65 The Archaeus, the creative centre of the earth, is hermaphroditic like the Protanthropos, as is clear from the epilogue to the Novum lumen of Sendivogius: When a man is illuminated by the light of nature, the mist vanishes from his eyes, and without difficulty he may behold the point of our magnet, which corresponds to both centres of the rays, that is, those of the sun and the earth. This cryptic sentence is elucidated by the following example: When you place a twelve-year-old boy side by side with a girl of the same age, and dressed the same, you cannot distinguish between them. But take their clothes off66 and the difference will become apparent.67 According to this, the centre consists in a conjunction of male and female. This is confirmed in a text by Abraham Eleazar,68 where the arcane substance laments being in the state of nigredo:
Through Cham,69 the Egyptian, I must pass. . . . Noah must wash me . . . in the deepest sea, that my blackness may depart. . . . I must be fixed to this black cross, and must be cleansed therefrom with wretchedness and vinegar, and made white, that . . . my heart may shine like a carbuncle, and the old Adam come forth from me again. O! Adam Kadmon, how beautiful art thou! . . . Like Kedar I am black henceforth, ah! how long! O come, my Mesech,70 and disrobe me, that mine inner beauty may be revealed. . . . O Shulamite, afflicted within and without, the watchmen of the great city will find thee and wound thee, and rob thee of thy garments . . . and take away thy veil. Who then will lead me out from Edom, from thy stout wall? . . . Yet shall I be blissful again when I am delivered from the poison wherewith I am accursed, and my inmost seed and first birth comes forth. . . . For its father is the sun, and its mother the moon.71

2.03 - On Medicine, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
There was an article in The Hindu against Dr. Abraham's method of treatment.
Sri Aurobindo: There is no argument advanced against Abraham's theory. I am sure his intuition is correct and it will be much more easily worked out by him when the science and experiment are settled so that anyone can do the thing. But, generally, in a discovery a man works by an intuition and the man who first sees the thing can very easily work it out.
I am also pretty sure that the idea that diseases are due to electrical vibrations and that they can be cured by producing certain other more powerful vibrations is also correct.

2.08 - The Branches of The Archetypal Man, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
Abraham. They certainly did not lose their spiritual
estate, but they acted no differently from the inhabitants

2.20 - The Infancy and Maturity of ZO, Father and Mother, Israel The Ancient and Understanding, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
The patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) in their
time began to improve conditions, but the task was

2.24 - Back to Back Face to Face and The Process of Sawing Through, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
of action. For example, the angels who came to Abraham each
had his own assignment: one was to destroy Sodom; one to inform
Sarah; one to heal Abraham. No one angel could perform all three
tasks alone.

2.24 - THE MASTERS LOVE FOR HIS DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
M: "You just said, 'Has anybody seen God as I see that tree?' Suppose God comes to you as a man and says, 'I am God.' Will you believe it then? You certainly remember the story of Lazarus. After his death, Lazarus said to Abraham, 'Let me go back to the earth and tell my friends and relatives that hell and the after-life exist.' Abraham replied: 'Do you think they will believe you? They will say it is a charlatan who is telling them such things.' The Master says that God cannot be known by reasoning. By faith alone one attains everything — knowledge and super-knowledge. By faith alone one sees God and becomes intimate with Him."
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was in bed. Ramlal, who had come from Dakshineswar, was massaging his feet. Gopal of Sinthi and M. were in the room.

2.25 - List of Topics in Each Talk, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
| 05-07-24 | Dr. Abraham's theory of disease |
| 19-09-25 | Samadhi, science, Yoga; Dr. Kobayashi, Cou; Pranic currents, brain, sleep, dreams |

3.00.2 - Introduction, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Christian should imagine himself already reposing in Abrahams
anticipated bosom, saved and at peace and free from all fear. Christs

3.04 - LUNA, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[185] The raving madness of the infected infant is assuaged (we should really say with caresses, for that is the meaning of mulcere) by the doves of Diana. These doves form a paira love pair, for doves are the birds of Astarte.329 In alchemy they represent, like all winged creatures, spirits or souls, or, in technical terms, the aqua, the extracted transformative substance.330 The appearance of a pair of doves points to the imminent marriage of the filius regius and to the dissolution of the opposites as a result of the union. The filius is merely infected by the evil, but the evil itself, the mad dog, is sublimated and changed into an eagle at the plenilunium. In the treatise of Abraham Eleazar, the lapis in its dark, feminine form appears instead of the dog and is compared to the Shulamite in the Song of Songs. The lapis says: But I must be like a dove.331
[186] There is another passage in the Introitus apertus which is relevant in this context:
--
[199] It is the age-old drama of opposites, no matter what they are called, which is fought out in every human life. In our text it is obviously the struggle between the good and the evil spirit, expressed in alchemical language just as today we express it in conflicting ideologies. The text comes close to the mystical language of the Baroque the language of Jacob Boehme (15751624), Abraham of Franckenberg (15931652), and Angelus Silesius (16241677).
[200] We learn that the winged youth is espoused to the central Water. This is the fountain of the soul or the fount of wisdom,346 from which the inner life wells up. The nymph of the spring is in the last analysis Luna, the mother-beloved, from which it follows that the winged youth is Sol, the filius solis, lapis, aurum philosophicum, lumen luminum, medicina catholica, una salus, etc. He is the best, the highest, the most precious in potentia. But he will become real only if he can unite with Luna, the mother of mortal bodies. If not, he is threatened with the fate of the puer aeternus in Faust, who goes up in smoke three times.347 The adept must therefore always take care to keep the Hermetic vessel well sealed, in order to prevent what is in it from flying away. The content becomes fixed through the mystery of the coniunctio, in which the extreme opposites unite, night is wedded with day, and the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female neither male nor female.348 This apocryphal saying of Jesus from the beginning of the second century is indeed a paradigm for the alchemical union of opposites. Obviously this problem is an eschatological one, but, aside from the somewhat tortuous language of the times, it cannot be called abstruse since it has universal validity, from the tao of Lao-tzu to the coincidentia oppositorum of Cusanus. The same idea penetrated into Christianity in the form of the apocalyptic marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 22 : 9ff.), and we seldom find a high point of religious feeling where this eternal image of the royal marriage does not appear.

3.05 - SAL, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[338] The dark nature of salt accounts for its blackness and foetid smell.670 At the dissolution of living bodies it is the last residue of corruption, but it is the prime agent in generation.671 Mylius expressly identifies salt with the uroboros-dragon.672 We have already mentioned its identification with the sea of Typhon; hence one could easily identify it with the sea-monster Leviathan.673 At all events there is an amusing relationship between salt and the Leviathan in Abraham Eleazar, who says with reference to Job 40 : 15:674 For Behemoth is a wild ox, whom the Most High has salted up with Leviathan and preserved for the world to come,675 evidently as food for the inhabitants of paradise,676 or whatever the world to come may mean.
[339] Another direful aspect of salt is its relation to the malefic Saturn, as is implied by Grasseus in that passage about the white dove and the philosophical lead. Speaking of the identity of sea and salt, Vigenerus points out that the Pythagoreans called the sea the tear of Kronos, because of its bitter saltness.677 On account of its relation to Typhon salt is also endowed with a murderous quality,678 as we saw in the chapter on Sulphur, where Sal inflicts on Sulphur an incurable wound. This offers a curious parallel to Kundrys wounding of Amfortas in Parsifal. In the parable of Sulphur Sal plays the sinister new-moon role of Luna.

3.12 - Of the Bloody Sacrifice, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Passover, following on the story of Abrahams being commanded to
sacrifice his firstborn son, with the idea of the substitution of animal

3.21 - Of Black Magic, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Abraham, had made a pact with the Demon, and had given himself over to
him in body and soul and had renounced God and all the Saints ultimately his

3-5 Full Circle, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
When a complex mechanism has complexly deteriorated and broken down, the first thing the repair engineer needs to see is the blueprint of the system when it was new, and working correctly. For, as Abraham Lincoln said of the damaged social system whose controller he was trying to restore, "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it." A breakdown can be made only relative to the condition of "normality." Figure IV-5 gives us this "base line" for Lower Industrial civilization, formulated deductively. Relative to this "blue print" of the normal Lower Industrial system, we can now map the structure of the "normal," "correctly" (cybernetically) working university.
The structure of the university's widespread current breakdown, actively engineered by social technologists who have misconstrued human kind's genetico-psycho-social structure, can then be understood much better. It is, of course, widely sensed without the benefit of maps. Sensing, however, is what the patient does. Curing is quite another thing: it begins with understanding of "where we are, and whither we are tending;" from there it sets its course.
The following map represents an ideal which administrations and trustees of top colleges in Britain, the United States and the U.S.S.R. have striven to approximate. When a complex mechanism has complexly deteriorated and broken down, the first thing the repair engineer needs to see is the blueprint of the system when it was new, and working correctly. For, as Abraham Lincoln said of the damaged social system whose controller he was trying to restore, "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it." A breakdown can be made only relative to the condition of "normality." Figure IV-5 gives us this "base line" for Lower Industrial civilization, formulated deductively. Relative to this "blue print" of the normal Lower Industrial system, we can now map the structure of the "normal," "correctly" (cybernetically) working university.
The structure of the university's widespread current breakdown, actively engineered by social technologists who have misconstrued human kind's genetico-psycho-social structure, can then be understood much better. It is, of course, widely sensed without the benefit of maps. Sensing, however, is what the patient does. Curing is quite another thing: it begins with understanding of "where we are, and whither we are tending;" from there it sets its course.

4.01 - Introduction, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
and by K. Abraham, Dreams and Myths, orig. 1909. They were succeeded by Otto
Rank of the Viennese school {The Myth of the Birth of the Hero, orig. 1922). In

5.01 - ADAM AS THE ARCANE SUBSTANCE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
There the power of God will appear, for the four corners of the world have there become one, say the Ethiopic Clementines.43 God said to Adam: I shall make thee God, but not now; only after the passing of a great number of years.44 The apocryphal Life of Adam and Eve says that the east and north of paradise were given to Adam, but the west and south to Eve.45 The Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer relates that Adam was buried in the double cave Machpelah, and that Eve, Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah were buried there too. Therefore the cave was named Kiriath Arba, the City of Four, because four husbands and wives were buried there.46
[557] I do not want to pile up proofs of Adams quaternary nature, but only to give it due emphasis. Psychologically the four are the four orienting functions of consciousness, two of them perceptive (irrational), and two discriminative (rational). We could say that all mythological figures who are marked by a quaternity have ultimately to do with the structure of consciousness. We can therefore understand why Isaac Luria attributed every psychic quality to Adam: he is the psyche par excellence.47

5.03 - ADAM AS THE FIRST ADEPT, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
When Adam was in paradise, God sent the holy angel Raziel,105 the keeper of the higher secrets, to him with a book, in which the higher holy wisdom was set forth. In this book two and seventy kinds of wisdom were described in six hundred and seventy sections. By means of this book there were given to him fifteen hundred keys to wisdom, which were known to none of the higher holy men, and all remained secret until this book came to Adam. . . . Henceforth he kept this book hid and secret, daily using this treasure of the Lord, which discovered to him the higher secrets of which even the foremost angels knew nothing, until he was driven out of paradise. But when he sinned and transgressed the comm and of the Lord, this book fled from him. . . . He bequea thed it to his son Seth. And from Seth it came to Enoch, and from him . . . to Abraham.106
[573] In the Clementine Homilies (2nd cent.) Adam is the first of a series of eight incarnations of the true prophet. The last is Jesus.107 This idea of a pre-existent seer may spring from Jewish or Judaeo-Christian tradition, but in China it is vividly realized in the figure of Pan Ku.108 He is represented as a dwarf clad in a bear-skin or in leaves; on his head he has two horns.109 He proceeded from yang and yin, fashioned the chaos, and created heaven and earth. He was helped by four symbolic animals the unicorn, the phoenix, the tortoise, and the dragon.110 He is also represented with the sun in one hand and the moon in the other. In another version he has a dragons head and a snakes body. He changed himself into the earth with all its creatures and thus proved to be a real homo maximus and Anthropos. Pan Ku is of Taoist origin and nothing seems to be known of him before the fourth century A.D.111 He reincarnated himself in Yan-shih Tien-tsun, the First Cause and the highest in heaven.112 As the fount of truth he announces the secret teaching, which promises immortality, to every new age. After completing the work of creation he gave up his bodily form and found himself aimlessly floating in empty space. He therefore desired rebirth in visible form. At length he found a holy virgin, forty years old, who lived alone on a mountain, where she nourished herself on air and clouds. She was hermaphroditic, the embodiment of both yang and yin. Every day she collected the quintessence of sun and moon. Pan Ku was attracted by her virgin purity, and once, when she breathed in, he entered into her in the form of a ray of light, so that she became pregnant. The pregnancy lasted for twelve years, and the birth took place from the spinal column. From then on she was called Tai-yan Sheng-mu, the Holy Mother of the First Cause.113 The relatively late date of the legend leaves the possibility of Christian influence open. All the same, its analogy with Christian and Persian ideas does not prove its dependence on these sources.

5.04 - THE POLARITY OF ADAM, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[591] Already in Zosimos182 three sources can be distinguished: Jewish, Christian, and pagan. In later alchemy the pagan-syncretistic element naturally fades into the background to leave room for the predominance of the Christian element. In the sixteenth century, the Jewish element becomes noticeable again, under the influence of the Cabala, which had been made accessible to a wider public by Johann Reuchlin183 and Pico della Mirandola.184 Somewhat later the humanists then made their contri bution from the Hebrew and Aramaic sources, and especially from the Zohar. In the eighteenth century an allegedly Jewish treatise appeared, Abraham Eleazars Uraltes Chymisches Werck,185 making copious use of Hebraic terminology and claiming to be the mysterious Rindenbuch of Abraham the Jew, which, it was said, had revealed the art of gold-making to Nicholas Flamel (13301417).186 In this treatise there is the following passage:
For Noah must wash me in the deepest sea, with pain and toil, that my blackness may depart; I must lie here in the deserts among many serpents, and there is none to pity me; I must be fixed to this black cross, and must be cleansed therefrom with wretchedness and vinegar187 and made white, that the inwards of my head may be like the sun or Marez,188 and my heart may shine like a carbuncle, and the old Adam come forth again from me. O! Adam Kadmon, how beautiful art thou! And adorned with the rikmah189 of the King of the World! Like Kedar190 I am black henceforth; ah! how long! O come, my Mesech,191 and disrobe me, that mine inner beauty may be revealed. . . . O that the serpent roused up Eve! To which I must testify with my black colour that clings to me, and that is become mine by the curse of this persuasion, and therefore am I unworthy of all my brothers. O Sulamith afflicted within and without, the watchmen of the great city will find thee and wound thee, strip thee of thy garments and smite thee, and take away thy veil. . . . Yet shall I be blest again when I am delivered from the poison brought upon me by the curse, and mine inmost seed and first birth comes forth. For its father is the sun, and its mother the moon. Yea, I know else of no other bridegroom who should love me, because I am so black. Ah! do thou tear down the heavens and melt my mountains! For thou didst crumble the mighty kingdoms of Canaan like dust, and crush them with the brazen serpent of Joshua and offer them up to Algir

5.06 - THE TRANSFORMATION, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[619] In the Cabalistic view Adam Kadmon is not merely the universal soul or, psychologically, the self, but is himself the process of transformation, its division into three or four parts (trimeria or tetrameria). The alchemical formula for this is the Axiom of Maria: One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the Third comes the One as the Fourth.218 The treatise of Rabbi Abraham Cohen Irira (Hacohen Herrera) says: Adam Kadmon proceeded from the Simple and the One, and to that extent he is Unity; but he also descended and fell into his own nature, and to that extent he is Two. And again he will return to the One, which he has in him, and to the Highest; and to that extent he is Three and Four.219 This speculation refers to the essential Name, the Tetragrammaton, which is the four letters of Gods name, three different, and the fourth a repetition of the second.220 In the Hebrew word YHVH (written without vowels), he is feminine and is assigned as a wife to yod221 and to vau. As a result yod222 and vau223 are masculine, and the feminine he, though doubled, is identical and therefore a single unit. To that extent the essential Name is a triad. But since he is doubled, the Name is also a tetrad or quaternity224a perplexity which coincides most strangely with the Axiom of Maria. On the other hand the Tetragrammaton consists of a double marriage and thus agrees in an equally remarkable manner with our Adam diagrams. The doubling of the feminine he is archetypal,225 since the marriage quaternio presupposes both the difference and the identity of the feminine figures. This is true also of the two masculine figures, as we have seen, though here their difference usually predominatesnot surprisingly, as these things are mostly products of the masculine imagination. Consequently the masculine figure coincides with mans consciousness, where differences are practically absolute. Though the feminine figure is doubled it is so little differentiated that it appears identical. This double yet identical figure corresponds exactly to the anima, who, owing to her usually unconscious state, bears all the marks of non-differentiation.
[620] If we apply these considerations to the alchemical schema, we shall be able to modify it in a way that was not possible with the psychological one. We thus arrive at a formula which reduces both to the same denominator:

6.07 - THE MONOCOLUS, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
,147 for I have found it nowhere else in the literature. The alchemists use of a rare or strange word generally served to emphasize the extraordinary nature of the object expressed by it. (As we know, with this trick one can also make banalities appear unusual.) Even though the word monocolus appears to be unique, the image is not, for the uniped occurs in several illustrated alchemical manuscripts, for instance in the aforementioned Paris codex (Fr. 14765) entitled Abraham le Juif.148 As the title shows, this presumably purported to be, or was intended to replace, the zealously sought Rindenbuch of the same author, of which Nicholas Flamel gives an account in his autobiography and whose loss the alchemists so deeply deplored. Though this mythical work was never found, it was reinvented in Germany;149 but this forgery has nothing to do with our manuscript. On page 324 of the manuscript we find the first in a series of pictures of unipeds (cf. PI. 4). On the left there is a crowned man in a yellow robe, and on the right a priest in a white robe with a mitre. Each of them has only one foot. The inscription under the picture begins with the sign for Mercurius (
) and runs: There they make but one. This refers to the preceding text, For there is but one single thing, one medicine, and in it all our magistery consists; there are but two coadjutors who are made perfect here.150 The subject is obviously Mercurius duplex. In my chapter on Sulphur I have pointed out that it, especially in its red form, is identical with gold, the latter being generally regarded as rex. The red sceptre of the king might be an allusion to this. There is, as I have shown, a red and a white sulphur, so it too is duplex and identical with Mercurius. Red sulphur stands for the masculine, active principle of the sun, the white for that of the moon. As sulphur is generally masculine by nature and forms the counterpart of the feminine salt, the two figures probably signify the spirits of the arcane substance, which is often called rex, as in Bernardus Trevisanus.
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[734] What our Abraham le Juif text says about the royal persons sounds like a mythologem: the sun, the king of the blue sky, descends to earth and it becomes night; he then unites with his wife, the earth or sea. The primordial image of Uranos and Gaia may well be the background of this picture. Similarly, in connection with the raven205 as the name for this situation, we must consider the creative night mentioned in an Orphic hymn, which calls it a bird with black wings that was fertilized by the wind (pneuma). The product of this union was the silver egg, which in the Orphic view contained heaven above and earth below, and was therefore a cosmos in itself, i.e., the Microcosm. In alchemy it is the philosophical egg. The French alchemists of the eighteenth century were familiar with the king, the hot, red sulphur of the gold, and called it Osiris; the moist (aquosum) they called Isis. Osiris was the fire hidden in nature, the igneous principle . . . which animates all things;206 Isis was the passive and material principle of all things. The dismemberment of Osiris corresponded to the solutio, putrejactio, etc. Of this Dom Pernety,207 the source for these statements, says: The solution of the body is the coagulation of the spirit. The blackness pertains to Isis. (Apuleius says she was clad in a shining robe of the deepest black.) If heaven or the sun incline to her they are covered in her blackness.
[735] The relation of alchemical fantasies to the primordial images of Greek mythology is too well known for me to document it. The cosmogonic brother-sister incest,208 like the Creation itself, had been from ancient times the prototype of the alchemists great work. Yet we seek the Graeco-Roman tradition in vain for traces of the wonder-working monocolus. We find him, perhaps, in Vedic mythology, and in a form that is highly significant for our context, namely, as an attri bute of the sun-god Rohita209 (red sun), who was called the one-footed goat210 (ag kapada). In Hymn XIII, i of the Atharva-veda he is praised together with his wife Rohini. Of her it says: Rise up, O steed, that art within the waters, and The steed that is within the waters is risen up.211 The hymn begins with this invocation to Rohini, who is thereby united with Rohita after he has climbed to his highest place in heaven. The parallel with our French text is so striking that one would have to infer its literary dependence if there were any way of proving that the author was acquainted with the Atharva-veda. This proof is next to impossible, as Indian literature was not known in the West at all until the turn of the eighteenth century, and then only in the form of the Oupnekhat of Anquetil du Perron,212 a collection of Upanishads in Persian which he translated into Latin.213 The Atharva-veda was translated only in the second half of the nineteenth century.214 If we wish to explain the parallel at all we have to infer an archetypal connection.

6.0 - Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Abraham, Karl. Dreams and Myths. Translated by William A.
White. (Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series, 15.) New
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Eleazar, R. Abraham. Uraltes Chymisches Werk. Leipzig, 1760.
Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Trans-
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Abraham, Karl, 15371
Achurayim, 29871, 328, 329/, 335
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Eleazar, Abraham, 298/1
elements, four, 319, 329, 335

Blazing P3 - Explore the Stages of Postconventional Consciousness, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
inclined to point to Dag Hammarskjld, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Abraham Heschel and Thomas
Merton.To be Stage 6 does not mean to be perfect, whether perfection be understood in a

BOOK I. - Augustine censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion and its prohibition of the worship of the gods, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Further still, we are reminded that in such a carnage as then occurred, the bodies could not even be buried. But godly confidence is not appalled by so ill-omened a circumstance; for the faithful bear in mind that assurance has been given that not a hair of their head shall perish, and that, therefore, though they even be devoured by beasts, their blessed resurrection will not hereby be hindered. The Truth would nowise have said, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul,"[57] if anything whatever that an enemy could do to the body of the slain could be detrimental to the future life. Or will some one perhaps take so absurd a position as to contend that those who kill the body are not to be feared before death, and lest they kill the body, but after death, lest they deprive it of burial? If this be so, then that is false which Christ says, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do;"[58] for it seems they can do great injury to the dead body. Far be it from us to suppose that the Truth can be thus false. They who kill the body are said "to do something," because the death-blow is felt, the body still having sensation; but after that, they have no more that they can do, for in the slain body there is no sensation. And so there are indeed many bodies of Christians lying unburied; but no one has separated them from heaven, nor from that earth which is all filled with the presence of Him who knows whence He will raise again what He created. It is said, indeed, in the Psalm: "The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them."[59] But this was said rather to exhibit the cruelty of those who did these things, than the misery of those who suffered them. To the eyes of men this appears a harsh and doleful lot, yet "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."[Pg 20][60] Wherefore all these last offices and ceremonies that concern the dead, the careful funeral arrangements, and the equipment of the tomb, and the pomp of obsequies, are rather the solace of the living than the comfort of the dead. If a costly burial does any good to a wicked man, a squalid burial, or none at all, may harm the godly. His crowd of domestics furnished the purple-clad Dives with a funeral gorgeous in the eye of man; but in the sight of God that was a more sumptuous funeral which the ulcerous pauper received at the hands of the angels, who did not carry him out to a marble tomb, but bore him aloft to Abraham's bosom.
The men against whom I have undertaken to defend the city of God laugh at all this. But even their own philosophers[61] have despised a careful burial; and often whole armies have fought and fallen for their earthly country without caring to inquire whether they would be left exposed on the field of battle, or become the food of wild beasts. Of this noble disregard of sepulture poetry has well said: "He who has no tomb has the sky for his vault."[62] How much less ought they to insult over the unburied bodies of Christians, to whom it has been promised that the flesh itself shall be restored, and the body formed anew, all the members of it being gathered not only from the earth, but from the most secret recesses of any other of the elements in which the dead bodies of men have lain hid!
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However, there are some exceptions made by the divine authority to its own law, that men may not be put to death. These exceptions are of two kinds, being justified either by a general law, or by a special commission granted for a time to some individual. And in this latter case, he to whom authority is delegated, and who is but the sword in the hand of him who uses it, is not himself responsible for the death he deals. And, accordingly, they who have waged war in obedience to the divine command, or in conformity with His laws have represented in their persons the public justice or the wisdom of government, and in this capacity have put to death wicked men; such persons have by no means violated the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." Abraham indeed was not merely deemed guiltless of cruelty, but was even applauded for his piety, because he was ready to slay his son in obedience to God, not to his own passion. And it is reasonably enough made a question, whether we are to esteem it to have been in compliance with a comm and of God that Jephthah killed his daughter, because she met him when he had vowed that he would sacrifice to God whatever first met him as he returned victorious from battle. Samson, too, who drew down the house on himself and his foes together, is justified only on this ground, that the Spirit who wrought wonders by him had given him secret instructions to do this. With the exception, then, of these two classes of cases, which are justified either by a just law that applies generally, or by a special intimation from God Himself, the fountain of all justice, whoever kills a man, either himself or another, is implicated in the guilt of murder.
22. That suicide can never be prompted by magnanimity.
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But, they say, in the time of persecution some holy women escaped those who menaced them with outrage, by casting themselves into rivers which they knew would drown them; and having died in this manner, they are venerated in the church catholic as martyrs. Of such persons I do not presume to speak rashly. I cannot tell whether there may not have been vouchsafed to the church some divine authority, proved by trustworthy evidences, for so honouring their memory: it may be that it is so. It may be they were not deceived by human judgment, but prompted by divine wisdom, to their act of self-destruction. We know that this was the case with Samson. And when God enjoins any act, and intimates by plain evidence that He has enjoined it, who will call obedience criminal? Who will accuse so religious a submission? But then every man is not justified in sacrificing his son to God, because Abraham was commendable in so doing. The soldier who has slain a man in obedience to the authority under which he is lawfully commissioned, is not accused of murder by any law of his state; nay, if he has not slain him, it is then he is accused of treason to the state, and of despising the law. But if he has been acting on his own authority, and at his own impulse, he has in this case incurred the crime of shedding human blood. And thus he is punished for doing without orders the very thing he is punished for neglecting to do when he has been ordered. If the commands of a general make so great a difference, shall the commands of God make none? He, then, who knows it[Pg 38] is unlawful to kill himself, may nevertheless do so if he is ordered by Him whose commands we may not neglect. Only let him be very sure that the divine comm and has been signified. As for us, we can become privy to the secrets of conscience only in so far as these are disclosed to us, and so far only do we judge: "No one knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him."[75] But this we affirm, this we maintain, this we every way pronounce to be right, that no man ought to inflict on himself voluntary death, for this is to escape the ills of time by plunging into those of eternity; that no man ought to do so on account of another man's sins, for this were to escape a guilt which could not pollute him, by incurring great guilt of his own; that no man ought to do so on account of his own past sins, for he has all the more need of this life that these sins may be healed by repentance; that no man should put an end to this life to obtain that better life we look for after death, for those who die by their own hand have no better life after death.
27. Whether voluntary death should be sought in order to avoid sin.

BOOK II. -- PART I. ANTHROPOGENESIS., #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
god -- the Phoenician Elon or Elion, whom Abraham recognised as El Elion.* Besides the surname of
serpents, they were called the "builders," the "architects"; for the immense grandeur of their temples
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through his sons transmitted to posterity." (See New Encyclopaedia by Abraham Rees, F.R.S.)
Now it is Sanchoniathon, who informs the world that the Kabiri were the Sons of Sydic or Zedek

BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
the Biblical legends, such as Adam-Adami, Anouka-Noah, and his Ibrahim-Abraham etc., etc."
This is no reason, since Adam and others are generic names. Meanwhile it is humbly submitted that,
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** Their consecrated pillars (unhewn stones) erected by Abraham and Jacob were LINGHI.
[[Vol. 2, Page]] 473 THE ELOHISTIC AND JEHOVISTIC TEXTS.
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other Gods," (lxxxii. Psalm). The Lord appears to Abraham, and while saying, "I am the Almighty
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God," yet adds, "I will establish my covenant to be a God unto thee" (Abraham), and unto his seed
after him (Gen. xvii. 7) -- not unto Aryan Europeans.
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the personator of the lower god of Abraham and Jacob ought to have been made entirely distinct from
the mystic "Father" of Jesus, or -- the "Fallen" Angels should have been left unslandered by further
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and which fitted him, the "lord god of Abraham and Jacob" could hardly be crammed without damage
and breakage into the new Christian Canon. Being the weakest, the Judeans could not help the

BOOK I. -- PART I. COSMIC EVOLUTION, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
from him about Adam and Abraham, Noah and his three sons, etc., etc
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Hebrew Kabalists to their Patriarch Abraham (!), the book of Shu-king, China's primitive Bible, the
sacred volumes of the Egyptian Thoth-Hermes, the Puranas in India, and the Chaldean Book of
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lecturer premised by saying, ParAbraham is not this or that, it is not even consciousness, as it cannot be
related to matter or anything conditioned. It is not Ego nor is it Non-ego, not even Atma, but verily the

BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
ETERNAL ONE, symbolized by that of Abraham, and by Palestine as its substitute on Earth.*** The
passage of the SOUL-ATOM "through the Seven Planetary Chambers" had the same metaphysical and
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"I know ye are Abraham's seed* . . . I speak the things which I have seen with my Father; and ye do the
things which ye heard from your Father. . . . . Ye do the works of your Father. . . . . Ye are of your
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* Abraham and Saturn are identical in astro-symbology, and he is the forefa ther of the Jehovistic Jews.
Next Section

BOOK I. -- PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
to tempt Job; and harasses and wearies Pharaoh with Sarai, Abraham's wife, and "hardens" his heart
against Moses, lest there should be no opportunity for plaguing his victims "with great plagues"
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wrath, so did the Lord God of Abraham and Jacob. We find in I. Samuel, that "the Lord thundered
from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice, and he sent out arrows (thunder bolts) and scattered

Book of Exodus, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
CHAPTER 3
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6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
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15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: 17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.
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1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. 2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: 5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
6 And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. 7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. 8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
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2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. 4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD. 9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 11 Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. 12 And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? 13 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
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11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? 12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. 14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. 16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. 17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. 18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. 19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. 20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.
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1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it: 2 And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. 4 And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.
5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. 6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

Book of Genesis, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
The book was first called "Genesis" - - in the Greek Septuagint translation, as it presents both the origin of the world and mankind, and in particular, the Hebrew people. The book in Hebrew was known by its opening expression, "In the beginning" (as above). Genesis 1-11 traces the primeval history of creation, from Adam and Eve through Noah and his sons to Terah; and Genesis 12-50 recounts the patriarchal history of Israel, beginning with Abraham through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
The Book of Genesis presents essential religious teachings about God and his relation to man: his creative activity through which all things are made and on which they all depend; the creation of man in God's image and likeness; the institution of marriage as the union of one man with one woman; the fall of man from his original state of innocence through pride and disobedience, and its consequences on Adam and Eve and the human race; and God's loving kindness and continual offer of reconciliation through covenants with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Moses was the author - in the sense of originator and collector of traditions - of the Torah or . This is revealed in the text of the Law (Exodus 17:14, Exodus 24:4, Exodus 34:27-28, Leviticus 26:46, Numbers 33:2, Deuteronomy 31:9, Deuteronomy 31:24-26); the Prophets (Joshua 1:7-8, 8:31-32, 8:34, 23:6, I Kings 2:3, Daniel 9:11, 9:13); and as we learn from Jesus and the New Testament writers (John 1:45, John 5:46, Acts 3:22, Romans 10:5, Romans 10:19, First Corinthians 9:9, 2 Corinthians 3:15). Characteristics of ancient Hebrew language, as well as common themes that course through the Torah, support one original author for the Law of Moses or Pentateuch. Modern theory suggests the text of the Pentateuch developed through the ages.
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The Patriarchal History of Israel began with Abraham in Chapter 12:1-2, when God urged Abram to "Go forth from this land of your kinsfolk (Haran) and from your father's house to a land (Canaan) I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you." Abram is identified as "the Hebrew" - - in 14:13. In Chapter 14:18-20, we read of Melchizedek, the King and Priest of Salem, who brought out bread and wine, and who typified Christ (Hebrews 7). The institution of slavery is recorded in Genesis, for the vanquished became slaves to the victors. God warns Abram - "Know for certain that your descendants shall be strangers in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years" (Genesis 15:13). The Lord God made his Covenant with Abraham first in 15:18 and changed his name to Abraham in 17:5. Abraham was called a "friend of God" throughout Scripture (2 Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23). Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for the sin of sodomy (19). Abraham had two sons, Ishmael by Hagar and Isaac by his wife Sarah. Chapter 21 describes the birth of Isaac and the plight of Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham is tested through Isaac (22). Abraham bought land in Hebron (23) as a burial plot for Sarah. Isaac and Rebecca had Esau and Jacob (25). God first refers to his Commandments in Genesis 26:5. Jacob returned to Haran and had twelve sons by his wives Leah and Rachel and their maidservants. God renamed Jacob "Israel" (35:10), the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. Chapters 37 to 50 primarily cover the saga of the virtuous Joseph, who is sold into slavery by his own brothers (Genesis 37:28)!
The Book of Genesis is the subject of many artistic endeavors; the painting of Joseph's dream of the sun, moon, and eleven stars in Genesis 37:9 by Vincent Van Gogh entitled "Starry Night" in 1889 is one of the most famous.
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Abram Becomes Abraham
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
The Command for Circumcision
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. 11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. 13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
Sarai Becomes Sarah
15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. 23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. 24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.
CHAPTER 18
Abraham has Visitors
1 And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; 2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: 4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. 7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it a young man; and he hasted to dress it. 8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
The Promise of Isaac
9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. 10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? 13 And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? 14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. 15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.
Abraham Intercedes for Sodom
16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. 17 And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; 18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I know him, that he will comm and his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. 20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. 22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. 23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that [are] therein? 25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 26 And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. 27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: 28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. 29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. 30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. 31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. 32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. 33 And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.
CHAPTER 19
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27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: 28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. 30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 35 And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. 37 And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
CHAPTER 20
Abraham and Sarah at Gerar
1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. 4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? 5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. 6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. 7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. 10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? 11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake. 12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. 14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. 15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. 16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. 17 So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. 18 For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.
CHAPTER 21
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1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.
Conflict Between Sarah and Hagar
8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. 11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. 12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. 14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. 16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
The Angel of the Lord Appears to Hagar
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Abraham and Abimelech Make a Pact
22 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest: 23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. 24 And Abraham said, I will swear. 25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. 26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day. 27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? 30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. 31 Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them. 32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. 33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.
CHAPTER 22
Abraham Offers Isaac
1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son,
and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order,
and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him:
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13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Renewal of the Promise
15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;
21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24 And his concubine, whose name [was] Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.
CHAPTER 23
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1 And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, 4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6 Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a burying place amongst you.
10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. 12 And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. 13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
17 And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure 18 Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. 20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth.
CHAPTER 24
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1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: 3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: 4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. 5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? 6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. 7 The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. 8 And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again. 9 And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.
10 And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor. 11 And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water. 12 And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. 13 Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: 14 And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.
Rebekah at the Well
15 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. 16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. 17 And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. 18 And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. 19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. 20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels. 21 And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.
22 And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; 23 And said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? 24 And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor. 25 She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in. 26 And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD. 27 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master's brethren. 28 And the damsel ran, and told them of her mother's house these things.
Laban, the Brother of Rebekah
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34 And he said, I am Abraham's servant. 35 And the LORD hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses. 36 And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath. 37 And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell: 38 But thou shalt go unto my father's house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son. 39 And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me. 40 And he said unto me, The LORD, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house: 41 Then shalt thou be clear from this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred; and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath.
42 And I came this day unto the well, and said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go: 43 Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink; 44 And she say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same be the woman whom the LORD hath appointed out for my master's son.
45 And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down unto the well, and drew water: and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee. 46 And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she made the camels drink also. 47 And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him: and I put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands. 48 And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the LORD, and blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son. 49 And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. 50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the LORD: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. 51 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the LORD hath spoken. 52 And it came to pass, that, when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth. 53 And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. 54 And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him, and tarried all night; and they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master.
Joseph von Fuhrich of Bohemia - Jacob Meets Rachel at the Well, Austrian Gallery Belvedere, Vienna, 1836.
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59 And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them. 61 And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
62 And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi; for he dwelt in the south country. 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. 64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. 65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself. 66 And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
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The Sons of Abraham and Keturah
1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2 And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. 4 And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.
The Death of Abraham
7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. 8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre;
10 The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. 11 And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi.
Descendants of Ishmael
12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham: 13 And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, 14 And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,
15 Hadad, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: 16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. 17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people. 18 And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.
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19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac: 20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. 21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. 23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy [body]; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. 24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. 26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.
Esau Sells His Birthright
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1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. 2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; 4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Isaac at Gerar Meets Abimelech
6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: 7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. 8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. 9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. 10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. 11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. 12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. 13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: 14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. 15 For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. 16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. 17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. 19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. 20 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. 21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. 22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Isaac in Beersheba
23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba. 24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. 25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well. 26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army. 27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? 28 And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; 29 That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD. 30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. 31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. 33 And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day. 34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
CHAPTER 27
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1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. 3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. 5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. 6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; 8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
Dream of Jacob's Ladder
10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. 11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
CHAPTER 29
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33 And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. 35 And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images. 36 And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? 37 Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. 38 This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. 39 That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. 40 Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. 41 Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. 42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.
43 And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? 44 Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. 45 And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 46 And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap. 47 And Laban called it Jegarsahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed. 48 And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; 49 And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. 50 If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. 51 And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; 52 This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. 53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. 54 Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount. 55 And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.
CHAPTER 32
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1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. 3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now: 5 And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. 6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; 8 And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. 9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. 11 Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. 12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; 14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, 15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. 16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. 17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? 18 Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. 19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him. 20 And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. 21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
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1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: 3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. 4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. 5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. 7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. 8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth. 9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. 10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; 12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. 13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.
The Birth of Benjamin and Death of Rachel
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27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. 29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
CHAPTER 36
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8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these? 9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. 10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. 11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed. 12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him. 14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who [was] the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, 16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. 17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. 18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. 19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. 20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. 21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. 22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
CHAPTER 49
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28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
CHAPTER 50
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4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. 6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. 7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. 10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan. 12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: 13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
After the Death of Jacob
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22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. 24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

BOOK XIII. - That death is penal, and had its origin in Adam's sin, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
On this account some allegorize all that concerns Paradise itself, where the first men, the parents of the human race, are, according to the truth of holy Scripture, recorded to have been; and they understand all its trees and fruit-bearing plants as virtues and habits of life, as if they had no existence in the external world, but were only so spoken of or related for the sake of spiritual meanings. As if there could not be a real terrestrial Paradise! As if there never existed these two women, Sarah and Hagar, nor the two sons who were born to Abraham, the one of the bond woman, the other of the free, because the apostle says that in them the two covenants were prefigured; or as if water never flowed from the rock when Moses struck it, because therein Christ can be seen in a figure, as the same apostle says, "Now that rock was Christ!"[602] No[Pg 546] one, then, denies that Paradise may signify the life of the blessed; its four rivers, the four virtues, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice; its trees, all useful knowledge; its fruits, the customs of the godly; its tree of life, wisdom herself, the mother of all good; and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the experience of a broken commandment. The punishment which God appointed was in itself a just, and therefore a good thing; but man's experience of it is not good.
These things can also and more profitably be understood of the Church, so that they become prophetic foreshadowings of things to come. Thus Paradise is the Church, as it is called in the Canticles;[603] the four rivers of Paradise are the four gospels; the fruit-trees the saints, and the fruit their works; the tree of life is the holy of holies, Christ; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the will's free choice. For if man despise the will of God, he can only destroy himself; and so he learns the difference between consecrating himself to the common good and revelling in his own. For he who loves himself is abandoned to himself, in order that, being overwhelmed with fears and sorrows, he may cry, if there be yet soul in him to feel his ills, in the words of the psalm, "My soul is cast down within me,"[604] and when chastened, may say, "Because of his strength I will wait upon Thee."[605] These and similar allegorical interpretations may be suitably put upon Paradise without giving offence to any one, while yet we believe the strict truth of the history, confirmed by its circumstantial narrative of facts.[606]

BOOK XII. - Of the creation of angels and men, and of the origin of evil, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
But if I make such a reply, it will be said to me, How, then, are they not co-eternal with the Creator, if He and they always have been? How even can they be said to have been created, if we are to understand that they have always existed? What shall we reply to this? Shall we say that both statements are true? that they always have been, since they have been in all time, they being created along with time, or time along with them, and yet that also they were created? For, similarly, we will not deny that time itself was created, though no one doubts that time has been in all time; for if it has not been in all time, then there was a time when there was no time. But the most foolish person could not make such an assertion. For we can reasonably say there was a time when Rome was not; there was a time when Jerusalem was not; there was a time when Abraham was not; there was a time when man was not, and so on: in fine, if the world was not made at the commencement of time, but after some time had elapsed, we can say there[Pg 503] was a time when the world was not. But to say there was a time when time was not, is as absurd as to say there was a man when there was no man; or, this world was when this world was not. For if we are not referring to the same object, the form of expression may be used, as, there was another man when this man was not. Thus we can reasonably say there was another time when this time was not; but not the merest simpleton could say there was a time when there was no time. As, then, we say that time was created, though we also say that it always has been, since in all time time has been, so it does not follow that if the angels have always been, they were therefore not created. For we say that they have always been, because they have been in all time; and we say they have been in all time, because time itself could no wise be without them. For where there is no creature whose changing movements admit of succession, there cannot be time at all. And consequently, even if they have always existed, they were created; neither, if they have always existed, are they therefore co-eternal with the Creator. For He has always existed in unchangeable eternity; while they were created, and are said to have been always, because they have been in all time, time being impossible without the creature. But time passing away by its changefulness, cannot be co-eternal with changeless eternity. And consequently, though the immortality of the angels does not pass in time, does not become past as if now it were not, nor has a future as if it were not yet, still their movements, which are the basis of time, do pass from future to past; and therefore they cannot be co-eternal with the Creator, in whose movement we cannot say that there has been that which now is not, or shall be that which is not yet. Wherefore, if God always has been Lord, He has always had creatures under His dominion,creatures, however, not begotten of Him, but created by Him out of nothing; nor co-eternal with Him, for He was before them, though at no time without them, because He preceded them, not by the lapse of time, but by His abiding eternity. But if I make this reply to those who demand how He was always Creator, always Lord, if there were not always a subject creation; or how this was created, and not[Pg 504] rather co-eternal with its Creator, if it always was, I fear I may be accused of recklessly affirming what I know not, instead of teaching what I know. I return, therefore, to that which our Creator has seen fit that we should know; and those things which He has allowed the abler men to know in this life, or has reserved to be known in the next by the perfected saints, I acknowledge to be beyond my capacity. But I have thought it right to discuss these matters without making positive assertions, that they who read may be warned to abstain from hazardous questions, and may not deem themselves fit for everything. Let them rather endeavour to obey the wholesome injunction of the apostle, when he says, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."[547] For if an infant receive nourishment suited to its strength, it becomes capable, as it grows, of taking more; but if its strength and capacity be overtaxed, it dwines away in place of growing.
16. How we are to understand God's promise of life eternal, which was uttered before the "eternal times."

BOOK XIV. - Of the punishment and results of mans first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Therefore, because the sin was a despising of the authority[Pg 29] of God,who had created man; who had made him in His own image; who had set him above the other animals; who had placed him in Paradise; who had enriched him with abundance of every kind and of safety; who had laid upon him neither many, nor great, nor difficult commandments, but, in order to make a wholesome obedience easy to him, had given him a single very brief and very light precept by which He reminded that creature whose service was to be free that He was Lord,it was just that condemnation followed, and condemnation such that man, who by keeping the commandments should have been spiritual even in his flesh, became fleshly even in his spirit; and as in his pride he had sought to be his own satisfaction, God in His justice abandoned him to himself, not to live in the absolute independence he affected, but instead of the liberty he desired, to live dissatisfied with himself in a hard and miserable bondage to him to whom by sinning he had yielded himself, doomed in spite of himself to die in body as he had willingly become dead in spirit, condemned even to eternal death (had not the grace of God delivered him) because he had forsaken eternal life. Whoever thinks such punishment either excessive or unjust shows his inability to measure the great iniquity of sinning where sin might so easily have been avoided. For as Abraham's obedience is with justice pronounced to be great, because the thing commanded, to kill his son, was very difficult, so in Paradise the disobedience was the greater, because the difficulty of that which was commanded was imperceptible. And as the obedience of the second Man was the more laudable because He became obedient even "unto death,"[101] so the disobedience of the first man was the more detestable because he became disobedient even unto death. For where the penalty annexed to disobedience is great, and the thing commanded by the Creator is easy, who can sufficiently estimate how great a wickedness it is, in a matter so easy, not to obey the authority of so great a power, even when that power deters with so terrible a penalty?
In short, to say all in a word, what but disobedience was the punishment of disobedience in that sin? For what else[Pg 30] is man's misery but his own disobedience to himself, so that in consequence of his not being willing to do what he could do, he now wills to do what he cannot? For though he could not do all things in Paradise before he sinned, yet he wished to do only what he could do, and therefore he could do all things he wished. But now, as we recognise in his offspring, and as divine Scripture testifies, "Man is like to vanity."[102] For who can count how many things he wishes which he cannot do, so long as he is disobedient to himself, that is, so long as his mind and his flesh do not obey his will? For in spite of himself his mind is both frequently disturbed, and his flesh suffers, and grows old, and dies; and in spite of ourselves we suffer whatever else we suffer, and which we would not suffer if our nature absolutely and in all its parts obeyed our will. But is it not the infirmities of the flesh which hamper it in its service? Yet what does it matter how its service is hampered, so long as the fact remains, that by the just retri bution of the sovereign God whom we refused to be subject to and serve, our flesh, which was subjected to us, now torments us by insubordination, although our disobedience brought trouble on ourselves, not upon God? For He is not in need of our service as we of our body's; and therefore what we did was no punishment to Him, but what we receive is so to us. And the pains which are called bodily are pains of the soul in and from the body. For what pain or desire can the flesh feel by itself and without the soul? But when the flesh is said to desire or to suffer, it is meant, as we have explained, that the man does so, or some part of the soul which is affected by the sensation of the flesh, whether a harsh sensation causing pain, or gentle, causing pleasure. But pain in the flesh is only a discomfort of the soul arising from the flesh, and a kind of shrinking from its suffering, as the pain of the soul which is called sadness is a shrinking from those things which have happened to us in spite of ourselves. But sadness is frequently preceded by fear, which is itself in the soul, not in the flesh; while bodily pain is not preceded by any kind of fear of the flesh, which can be felt in the flesh before the pain. But pleasure is preceded[Pg 31] by a certain appetite which is felt in the flesh like a craving, as hunger and thirst and that generative appetite which is most commonly identified with the name "lust," though this is the generic word for all desires. For anger itself was defined by the ancients as nothing else than the lust of revenge;[103] although sometimes a man is angry even at inanimate objects which cannot feel his vengeance, as when one breaks a pen, or crushes a quill that writes badly. Yet even this, though less reasonable, is in its way a lust of revenge, and is, so to speak, a mysterious kind of shadow of [the great law of] retri bution, that they who do evil should suffer evil. There is therefore a lust for revenge, which is called anger; there is a lust of money, which goes by the name of avarice; there is a lust of conquering, no matter by what means, which is called opinionativeness; there is a lust of applause, which is named boasting. There are many and various lusts, of which some have names of their own, while others have not. For who could readily give a name to the lust of ruling, which yet has a powerful influence in the soul of tyrants, as civil wars bear witness?

BOOK XIX. - A review of the philosophical opinions regarding the Supreme Good, and a comparison of these opinions with the Christian belief regarding happiness, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
But it may be replied, Who is this God, or what proof is there that He alone is worthy to receive sacrifice from the Romans? One must be very blind to be still asking who this God is. He is the God whose prophets predicted the things we see accomplished. He is the God from whom Abraham received the assurance, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed."[658] That this was fulfilled in Christ, who according to the flesh sprang from that seed, is recognised, whether they will or no, even by those who have continued to be the enemies of this name. He is the God whose divine Spirit spake by the men whose predictions I cited in the preceding books, and which are fulfilled in the Church which has extended over all the world. This is the God whom Varro, the most learned of the Romans, supposed to be Jupiter, though he knows not what he says; yet I think it right to note the circumstance that a man of such learning was unable to suppose that this God had no existence or was contemptible, but believed Him to be the same as the supreme God. In fine, He is the God whom Porphyry, the most learned of the philosophers, though the bitterest enemy of the Christians, confesses to be a great God, even according to the oracles of those whom he esteems gods.
[Pg 334]

BOOK X. - Porphyrys doctrine of redemption, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
I should seem tedious were I to recount all the ancient miracles, which were wrought in attestation of God's promises which He made to Abraham thousands of years ago, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed.[395] For who can but marvel that Abraham's barren wife should have given birth to a son at an age when not even a prolific woman could bear children; or, again, that when Abraham sacrificed, a flame from heaven should have run between the divided parts;[396] or that the angels in human form, whom he had hospitably entertained, and who had renewed God's promise[Pg 393] of offspring, should also have predicted the destruction of Sodom by fire from heaven;[397] and that his nephew Lot should have been rescued from Sodom by the angels as the fire was just descending, while his wife, who looked back as she went, and was immediately turned into salt, stood as a sacred beacon warning us that no one who is being saved should long for what he is leaving? How striking also were the wonders done by Moses to rescue God's people from the yoke of slavery in Egypt, when the magi of the Pharaoh, that is, the king of Egypt, who tyrannized over this people, were suffered to do some wonderful things that they might be vanquished all the more signally! They did these things by the magical arts and incantations to which the evil spirits or demons are addicted; while Moses, having as much greater power as he had right on his side, and having the aid of angels, easily conquered them in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. And, in fact, the magicians failed at the third plague; whereas Moses, dealing out the miracles delegated to him, brought ten plagues upon the land, so that the hard hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians yielded, and the people were let go. But, quickly repenting, and essaying to overtake the departing Hebrews, who had crossed the sea on dry ground, they were covered and overwhelmed in the returning waters. What shall I say of those frequent and stupendous exhibitions of divine power, while the people were conducted through the wilderness?of the waters which could not be drunk, but lost their bitterness, and quenched the thirsty, when at God's comm and a piece of wood was cast into them? of the manna that descended from heaven to appease their hunger, and which begat worms and putrefied when any one collected more than the appointed quantity, and yet, though double was gathered on the day before the Sabbath (it not being lawful to gather it on that day), remained fresh? of the birds which filled the camp, and turned appetite into satiety when they longed for flesh, which it seemed impossible to supply to so vast a population? of the enemies who met them, and opposed their passage with arms, and were defeated without the loss of a single Hebrew, when[Pg 394] Moses prayed with his hands extended in the form of a cross? of the seditious persons who arose among God's people, and separated themselves from the divinely-ordered community, and were swallowed up alive by the earth, a visible token of an invisible punishment? of the rock struck with the rod, and pouring out waters more than enough for all the host? of the deadly serpents' bites, sent in just punishment of sin, but healed by looking at the lifted brazen serpent, so that not only were the tormented people healed, but a symbol of the crucifixion of death set before them in this destruction of death by death? It was this serpent which was preserved in memory of this event, and was afterwards worshipped by the mistaken people as an idol, and was destroyed by the pious and God-fearing king Hezekiah, much to his credit.
9. Of the illicit arts connected with demonolatry, and of which the Platonist Porphyry adopts some, and discards others.
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This, then, is the universal way of the soul's deliverance, the way that is granted by the divine compassion to the nations universally. And no nation to which the knowledge of it has already come, or may hereafter come, ought to demand, Why so soon? or, Why so late?for the design of Him who sends it is impenetrable by human capacity. This was felt by Porphyry when he confined himself to saying that this gift of God was not yet received, and had not yet come to his knowledge. For, though this was so, he did not on that account pronounce that the way itself had no existence. This, I say, is the universal way for the deliverance of believers, concerning which the faithful Abraham received the divine assurance, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed."[434] He, indeed, was by birth a Chaldan; but, that he might receive these great promises, and that there might be propagated from him a seed "disposed by angels in the hand of a Mediator,"[435] in whom this universal way, thrown open to all nations for the deliverance of the soul, might be found, he was ordered to leave his country, and kindred, and father's house. Then was he himself, first of all, delivered from the Chaldan superstitions, and by his obedience worshipped the one true God, whose promises he faithfully trusted. This is the universal way, of which it is said in holy prophecy, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations."[436] And hence, when our Saviour, so long after, had taken flesh of the seed of Abraham, He says of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."[437] This is the universal way, of which so long before it had been predicted, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the[Pg 433] word of the Lord from Jerusalem."[438] This way, therefore, is not the property of one, but of all nations. The law and the word of the Lord did not remain in Zion and Jerusalem, but issued thence to be universally diffused. And therefore the Mediator Himself, after His resurrection, says to His alarmed disciples, "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened He their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."[439] This is the universal way of the soul's deliverance, which the holy angels and the holy prophets formerly disclosed where they could among the few men who found the grace of God, and especially in the Hebrew nation, whose commonwealth was, as it were, consecrated to prefigure and fore-announce the city of God which was to be gathered from all nations, by their tabernacle, and temple, and priesthood, and sacrifices. In some explicit statements, and in many obscure foreshadowings, this way was declared; but latterly came the Mediator Himself in the flesh, and His blessed apostles, revealing how the grace of the New Testament more openly explained what had been obscurely hinted to preceding generations, in conformity with the relation of the ages of the human race, and as it pleased God in His wisdom to appoint, who also bore them witness with signs and miracles, some of which I have cited above. For not only were there visions of angels, and words heard from those heavenly ministrants, but also men of God, armed with the word of simple piety, cast out unclean spirits from the bodies and senses of men, and healed deformities and sicknesses; the wild beasts of earth and sea, the birds of air, inanimate things, the elements, the stars, obeyed their divine commands; the powers of hell gave way before them, the dead were restored to life. I say nothing of the miracles peculiar and proper to the Saviour's own person, especially the nativity[Pg 434] and the resurrection; in the one of which He wrought only the mystery of a virgin maternity, while in the other He furnished an instance of the resurrection which all shall at last experience. This way purifies the whole man, and prepares the mortal in all his parts for immortality. For, to prevent us from seeking for one purgation for the part which Porphyry calls intellectual, and another for the part he calls spiritual, and another for the body itself, our most mighty and truthful Purifier and Saviour assumed the whole human nature. Except by this way, which has been present among men both during the period of the promises and of the proclamation of their fulfilment, no man has been delivered, no man is delivered, no man shall be delivered.
As to Porphyry's statement that the universal way of the soul's deliverance had not yet come to his knowledge by any acquaintance he had with history, I would ask, what more remarkable history can be found than that which has taken possession of the whole world by its authoritative voice? or what more trustworthy than that which narrates past events, and predicts the future with equal clearness, and in the unfulfilled predictions of which we are constrained to believe by those that are already fulfilled? For neither Porphyry nor any Platonists can despise divination and prediction, even of things that pertain to this life and earthly matters, though they justly despise ordinary soothsaying and the divination that is connected with magical arts. They deny that these are the predictions of great men, or are to be considered important, and they are right; for they are founded, either on the foresight of subsidiary causes, as to a professional eye much of the course of a disease is foreseen by certain premonitory symptoms, or the unclean demons predict what they have resolved to do, that they may thus work upon the thoughts and desires of the wicked with an appearance of authority, and incline human frailty to imitate their impure actions. It is not such things that the saints who walk in the universal way care to predict as important, although, for the purpose of commending the faith, they knew and often predicted even such things as could not be detected by human observation, nor be readily verified by experience. But there[Pg 435] were other truly important and divine events which they predicted, in so far as it was given them to know the will of God. For the incarnation of Christ, and all those important marvels that were accomplished in Him, and done in His name; the repentance of men and the conversion of their wills to God; the remission of sins, the grace of righteousness, the faith of the pious, and the multitudes in all parts of the world who believe in the true divinity; the overthrow of idolatry and demon worship, and the testing of the faithful by trials; the purification of those who persevered, and their deliverance from all evil; the day of judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the eternal damnation of the community of the ungodly, and the eternal kingdom of the most glorious city of God, ever-blessed in the enjoyment of the vision of God,these things were predicted and promised in the Scriptures of this way; and of these we see so many fulfilled, that we justly and piously trust that the rest will also come to pass. As for those who do not believe, and consequently do not understand, that this is the way which leads straight to the vision of God and to eternal fellowship with Him, according to the true predictions and statements of the Holy Scriptures, they may storm at our position, but they cannot storm it.

BOOK XVIII. - A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
object:BOOK XVIII. - A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world
author class:Saint Augustine of Hippo
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AUGUSTINE TRACES THE PARALLEL COURSES OF THE EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY CITIES FROM THE TIME OF Abraham TO THE END OF THE WORLD; AND ALLUDES TO THE ORACLES REGARDING CHRIST, BOTH THOSE UTTERED BY THE SIBYLS, AND THOSE OF THE SACRED PROPHETS WHO WROTE AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF ROME, HOSEA, AMOS, ISAIAH, MICAH, AND THEIR SUCCESSORS.
1. Of those things down to the times of the Saviour which have been discussed in the seventeen books.
I promised to write of the rise, progress, and appointed end of the two cities, one of which is God's, the other this world's, in which, so far as mankind is concerned, the former is now a stranger. But first of all I undertook, so far as His grace should enable me, to refute the enemies of the city of God, who prefer their gods to Christ its founder, and fiercely hate Christians with the most deadly malice. And this I have done in the first ten books. Then, as regards my threefold promise which I have just mentioned, I have treated distinctly, in the four books which follow the tenth, of the rise of both cities. After that, I have proceeded from the first man down to the flood in one book, which is the fifteenth of this work; and from that again down to Abraham our work has followed both in chronological order. From the patriarch Abraham down to the time of the Israelite kings, at which we close our sixteenth book, and thence down to the advent of Christ Himself in the flesh, to which period the seventeenth book reaches, the city of God appears from my way of writing to have run its course alone; whereas it did not run its course alone in this age, for both cities, in their course amid mankind, certainly experienced chequered times together just as from the beginning. But I did this in order that, first of all, from the time when the promises of God began to be more clear, down to the virgin birth of Him in whom those things promised from the first were to be fulfilled,[Pg 218] the course of that city which is God's might be made more distinctly apparent, without interpolation of foreign matter from the history of the other city, although down to the revelation of the new covenant it ran its course, not in light, but in shadow. Now, therefore, I think fit to do what I passed by, and show, so far as seems necessary, how that other city ran its course from the times of Abraham, so that attentive readers may compare the two.
2. Of the kings and times of the earthly city which were synchronous with the times of the saints, reckoning from the rise of Abraham.
The society of mortals spread abroad through the earth everywhere, and in the most diverse places, although bound together by a certain fellowship of our common nature, is yet for the most part divided against itself, and the strongest oppress the others, because all follow after their own interests and lusts, while what is longed for either suffices for none, or not for all, because it is not the very thing. For the vanquished succumb to the victorious, preferring any sort of peace and safety to freedom itself; so that they who chose to die rather than be slaves have been greatly wondered at. For in almost all nations the very voice of nature somehow proclaims, that those who happen to be conquered should choose rather to be subject to their conquerors than to be killed by all kinds of warlike destruction. This does not take place without the providence of God, in whose power it lies that any one either subdues or is subdued in war; that some are endowed with kingdoms, others made subject to kings. Now, among the very many kingdoms of the earth into which, by earthly interest or lust, society is divided (which we call by the general name of the city of this world), we see that two, settled and kept distinct from each other both in time and place, have grown far more famous than the rest, first that of the Assyrians, then that of the Romans. First came the one, then the other. The former arose in the east, and, immediately on its close, the latter in the west. I may speak of other kingdoms and other kings as appendages of these.
Ninus, then, who succeeded his father Belus, the first king of Assyria, was already the second king of that kingdom when Abraham was born in the land of the Chaldees. There was[Pg 219] also at that time a very small kingdom of Sicyon, with which, as from an ancient date, that most universally learned man Marcus Varro begins, in writing of the Roman race. For from these kings of Sicyon he passes to the Athenians, from them to the Latins, and from these to the Romans. Yet very little is related about these kingdoms, before the foundation of Rome, in comparison with that of Assyria. For although even Sallust, the Roman historian, admits that the Athenians were very famous in Greece, yet he thinks they were greater in fame than in fact. For in speaking of them he says, "The deeds of the Athenians, as I think, were very great and magnificent, but yet somewhat less than reported by fame. But because writers of great genius arose among them, the deeds of the Athenians were celebrated throughout the world as very great. Thus the virtue of those who did them was held to be as great as men of transcendent genius could represent it to be by the power of laudatory words."[497] This city also derived no small glory from literature and philosophy, the study of which chiefly flourished there. But as regards empire, none in the earliest times was greater than the Assyrian, or so widely extended. For when Ninus the son of Belus was king, he is reported to have subdued the whole of Asia, even to the boundaries of Libya, which as to number is called the third part, but as to size is found to be the half of the whole world. The Indians in the eastern regions were the only people over whom he did not reign; but after his death Semiramis his wife made war on them. Thus it came to pass that all the people and kings in those countries were subject to the kingdom and authority of the Assyrians, and did whatever they were commanded. Now Abraham was born in that kingdom among the Chaldees, in the time of Ninus. But since Grecian affairs are much better known to us than Assyrian, and those who have diligently investigated the antiquity of the Roman nation's origin have followed the order of time through the Greeks to the Latins, and from them to the Romans, who themselves are Latins, we ought on this account, where it is needful, to mention the Assyrian kings, that it may appear how Babylon, like a first Rome, ran its course along[Pg 220] with the city of God, which is a stranger in this world. But the things proper for insertion in this work in comparing the two cities, that is, the earthly and heavenly, ought to be taken mostly from the Greek and Latin kingdoms, where Rome herself is like a second Babylon.
At Abraham's birth, then, the second kings of Assyria and Sicyon respectively were Ninus and Europs, the first having been Belus and gialeus. But when God promised Abraham, on his departure from Babylonia, that he should become a great nation, and that in his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed, the Assyrians had their seventh king, the Sicyons their fifth; for the son of Ninus reigned among them after his mother Semiramis, who is said to have been put to death by him for attempting to defile him by incestuously lying with him. Some think that she founded Babylon, and indeed she may have founded it anew. But we have told, in the sixteenth book, when or by whom it was founded. Now the son of Ninus and Semiramis, who succeeded his mother in the kingdom, is also called Ninus by some, but by others Ninias, a patronymic word. Telexion then held the kingdom of the Sicyons. In his reign times were quiet and joyful to such a degree, that after his death they worshipped him as a god by offering sacrifices and by celebrating games, which are said to have been first instituted on this occasion.
3. What kings reigned in Assyria and Sicyon when, according to the promise, Isaac was born to Abraham in his hundredth year, and when the twins Esau and Jacob were born of Rebecca to Isaac in his sixtieth year.
In his times also, by the promise of God, Isaac, the son of Abraham, was born to his father when he was a hundred years old, of Sarah his wife, who, being barren and old, had already lost hope of issue. Aralius was then the fifth king of the Assyrians. To Isaac himself, in his sixtieth year, were born twin-sons, Esau and Jacob, whom Rebecca his wife bore to him, their grandfa ther Abraham, who died on completing a hundred and seventy years, being still alive, and reckoning his hundred and sixtieth year.[498] At that time there reigned as the seventh kings,among the Assyrians, that more ancient Xerxes, who was also called Balus; and among the Sicyons,[Pg 221] Thuriachus, or, as some write his name, Thurimachus. The kingdom of Argos, in which Inachus reigned first, arose in the time of Abraham's grandchildren. And I must not omit what Varro relates, that the Sicyons were also wont to sacrifice at the tomb of their seventh king Thuriachus. In the reign of Armamitres in Assyria and Leucippus in Sicyon as the eighth kings, and of Inachus as the first in Argos, God spoke to Isaac, and promised the same two things to him as to his father,namely, the land of Canaan to his seed, and the blessing of all nations in his seed. These same things were promised to his son, Abraham's grandson, who was at first called Jacob, afterwards Israel, when Belocus was the ninth king of Assyria, and Phoroneus, the son of Inachus, reigned as the second king of Argos, Leucippus still continuing king of Sicyon. In those times, under the Argive king Phoroneus, Greece was made more famous by the institution of certain laws and judges. On the death of Phoroneus, his younger brother Phegous built a temple at his tomb, in which he was worshipped as God, and oxen were sacrificed to him. I believe they thought him worthy of so great honour, because in his part of the kingdom (for their father had divided his territories between them, in which they reigned during his life) he had founded chapels for the worship of the gods, and had taught them to measure time by months and years, and to that extent to keep count and reckoning of events. Men still uncultivated, admiring him for these novelties, either fancied he was, or resolved that he should be made, a god after his death. Io also is said to have been the daughter of Inachus, who was afterwards called Isis, when she was worshipped in Egypt as a great goddess; although others write that she came as a queen out of Ethiopia, and because she ruled extensively and justly, and instituted for her subjects letters and many useful things, such divine honour was given her there after she died, that if any one said she had been human, he was charged with a capital crime.
4. Of the times of Jacob and his son Joseph.
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In order that we may be able to consider these times, let us go back a little to earlier times. At the beginning of the book of the prophet Hosea, who is placed first of twelve, it is written, "The word of the Lord which came to Hosea in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."[509] Amos also writes that he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, and adds the name of Jeroboam king of Israel, who lived at the same[Pg 247] time.[510] Isaiah the son of Amosei ther the above-named prophet, or, as is rather affirmed, another who was not a prophet, but was called by the same namealso puts at the head of his book these four kings named by Hosea, saying by way of preface that he prophesied in their days.[511] Micah also names the same times as those of his prophecy, after the days of Uzziah;[512] for he names the same three kings as Hosea named,Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We find from their own writings that these men prophesied contemporaneously. To these are added Jonah in the reign of Uzziah, and Joel in that of Jotham, who succeeded Uzziah. But we can find the date of these two prophets in the chronicles,[513] not in their own writings, for they say nothing about it themselves. Now these days extend from Procas king of the Latins, or his predecessor Aventinus, down to Romulus king of the Romans, or even to the beginning of the reign of his successor, Numa Pompilius. Hezekiah king of Judah certainly reigned till then. So that thus these fountains of prophecy, as I may call them, burst forth at once during those times when the Assyrian kingdom failed and the Roman began; so that, just as in the first period of the Assyrian kingdom Abraham arose, to whom the most distinct promises were made that all nations should be blessed in his seed, so at the beginning of the western Babylon, in the time of whose government Christ was to come in whom these promises were to be fulfilled, the oracles of the prophets were given not only in spoken but in written words, for a testimony that so great a thing should come to pass. For although the people of Israel hardly ever lacked prophets from the time when they began to have kings, these were only for their own use, not for that of the nations. But when the more manifestly prophetic Scripture began to be formed, which was to benefit the nations too, it was fitting that it should begin when this city was founded which was to rule the nations.
28. Of the things pertaining to the gospel of Christ which Hosea and Amos prophesied.
The prophet Hosea speaks so very profoundly that it is laborious work to penetrate his meaning. But, according to[Pg 248] promise, we must insert something from his book. He says, "And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there they shall be called the sons of the living God."[514] Even the apostles understood this as a prophetic testimony of the calling of the nations who did not formerly belong to God; and because this same people of the Gentiles is itself spiritually among the children of Abraham, and for that reason is rightly called Israel, therefore he goes on to say, "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together in one, and shall appoint themselves one headship, and shall ascend from the earth."[515] We should but weaken the savour of this prophetic oracle if we set ourselves to expound it. Let the reader but call to mind that corner-stone and those two walls of partition, the one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles,[516] and he will recognise them, the one under the term sons of Judah, the other as sons of Israel, supporting themselves by one and the same headship, and ascending from the earth. But that those carnal Israelites who are now unwilling to believe in Christ shall afterward believe, that is, their children shall (for they themselves, of course, shall go to their own place by dying), this same prophet testifies, saying, "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without an altar, without a priesthood, without manifestations."[517] Who does not see that the Jews are now thus? But let us hear what he adds: "And afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall be amazed at the Lord and at His goodness in the latter days."[518] Nothing is clearer than this prophecy, in which by David, as distinguished by the title of king, Christ is to be understood, "who is made," as the apostle says, "of the seed of David according to the flesh."[519] This prophet has also foretold the resurrection of Christ on the third day, as it behoved to be foretold, with prophetic loftiness, when he says, "He will heal us after two days, and in the third day we shall rise again."[520] In agreement with this the apostle says to us, "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are[Pg 249] above."[521] Amos also prophesies thus concerning such things: "Prepare thee, that thou mayst invoke thy God, O Israel; for lo, I am binding the thunder, and creating the spirit, and announcing to men their Christ."[522] And in another place he says, "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and build up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and will build them up again as in the days of old: that the residue of men may inquire for me, and all the nations upon whom my name is invoked, saith the Lord that doeth this."[523]
29. What things are predicted by Isaiah concerning Christ and the Church.
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Obadiah, so far as his writings are concerned, the briefest of all the prophets, speaks against Idumea, that is, the nation of Esau, that reprobate elder of the twin sons of Isaac and grandsons of Abraham. Now if, by that form of speech in which a part is put for the whole, we take Idumea as put for the nations, we may understand of Christ what he says among other things, "But upon Mount Sion shall be safety, and there shall be a Holy One."[529] And a little after, at the end of the same prophecy, he says, "And those who are saved again shall come up out of Mount Sion, that they may defend Mount Esau, and it shall be a kingdom to the Lord."[530] It is quite evident this was fulfilled when those saved again out of Mount Sion that is, the believers in Christ from Judea, of whom the apostles are chiefly to be acknowledgedwent up to defend Mount Esau. How could they defend it except by making safe, through the preaching of the gospel, those who believed that they might be "delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God?"[531] This he expressed as an inference, adding, "And it shall be to the Lord a kingdom." For Mount Sion signifies Judea, where it is predicted there shall be safety, and a Holy One, that is,[Pg 252] Christ Jesus. But Mount Esau is Idumea, which signifies the Church of the Gentiles, which, as I have expounded, those saved again out of Sion have defended that it should be a kingdom to the Lord. This was obscure before it took place; but what believer does not find it out now that it is done?
As for the prophet Nahum, through him God says, "I will exterminate the graven and the molten things: I will make thy burial. For lo, the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings and announceth peace are swift upon the mountains! O Judah, celebrate thy festival days, and perform thy vows; for now they shall not go on any more so as to become antiquated. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken away. He ascendeth who breathes in thy face, delivering thee out of tribulation."[532] Let him that remembers the gospel call to mind who hath ascended from hell and breathed the Holy Spirit in the face of Judah, that is, of the Jewish disciples; for they belong to the New Testament, whose festival days are so spiritually renewed that they cannot become antiquated. Moreover, we already see the graven and molten things, that is, the idols of the false gods, exterminated through the gospel, and given up to oblivion as of the grave, and we know that this prophecy is fulfilled in this very thing.
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In the time of our prophets, then, whose writings had already come to the knowledge of almost all nations, the philosophers of the nations had not yet arisen,at least, not those who were called by that name, which originated with Pythagoras the Samian, who was becoming famous at the time when the Jewish captivity ended. Much more, then, are the other philosophers found to be later than the prophets. For even Socrates the Athenian, the master of all who were then most famous, holding the pre-eminence in that department that is called the moral or active, is found after Esdras in the chronicles. Plato also was born not much later, who far outwent the other disciples of Socrates. If, besides these, we take their predecessors, who had not yet been styled philosophers, to wit, the seven sages, and then the physicists, who succeeded Thales, and imitated his studious search into the nature of things, namely, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Anaxagoras, and some others, before Pythagoras first professed himself a philosopher, even these did not precede the whole of our prophets in antiquity of time, since Thales, whom the others succeeded, is said to have flourished in the reign of Romulus, when the stream of prophecy burst forth from the fountains of Israel in those writings which spread over the whole world. So that only those theological poets, Orpheus, Linus, and Musus, and, it may be, some others[Pg 264] among the Greeks, are found earlier in date than the Hebrew prophets whose writings we hold as authoritative. But not even these preceded in time our true divine, Moses, who au thentically preached the one true God, and whose writings are first in the authoritative canon; and therefore the Greeks, in whose tongue the literature of this age chiefly appears, have no ground for boasting of their wisdom, in which our religion, wherein is true wisdom, is not evidently more ancient at least, if not superior. Yet it must be confessed that before Moses there had already been, not indeed among the Greeks, but among barbarous nations, as in Egypt, some doctrine which might be called their wisdom, else it would not have been written in the holy books that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,[573] as he was, when, being born there, and adopted and nursed by Pharaoh's daughter, he was also liberally educated. Yet not even the wisdom of the Egyptians could be antecedent in time to the wisdom of our prophets, because even Abraham was a prophet. And what wisdom could there be in Egypt before Isis had given them letters, whom they thought fit to worship as a goddess after her death? Now Isis is declared to have been the daughter of Inachus, who first began to reign in Argos when the grandsons of Abraham are known to have been already born.
38. That the ecclesiastical canon has not admitted certain writings on account of their too great antiquity, lest through them false things should be inserted instead of true.
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Now we must not believe that Heber, from whose name the word Hebrew is derived, preserved and transmitted the Hebrew language to Abraham only as a spoken language, and that the Hebrew letters began with the giving of the law through Moses; but rather that this language, along with its letters, was preserved by that succession of fathers. Moses, indeed, appointed some among the people of God to teach letters, before they could know any letters of the divine law.[Pg 266] The Scripture calls these men , who may be called in Latin inductores or introductores of letters, because they, as it were, introduce them into the hearts of the learners, or rather lead those whom they teach into them. Therefore no nation could vaunt itself over our patriarchs and prophets by any wicked vanity for the antiquity of its wisdom; since not even Egypt, which is wont falsely and vainly to glory in the antiquity of her doctrines, is found to have preceded in time the wisdom of our patriarchs in her own wisdom, such as it is. Neither will any one dare to say that they were most skilful in wonderful sciences before they knew letters, that is, before Isis came and taught them there. Besides, what, for the most part, was that memorable doctrine of theirs which was called wisdom but astronomy, and it may be some other sciences of that kind, which usually have more power to exercise men's wit than to enlighten their minds with true wisdom? As regards philosophy, which professes to teach men something which shall make them happy, studies of that kind flourished in those lands about the times of Mercury whom they called Trismegistus, long before the sages and philosophers of Greece, but yet after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and even after Moses himself. At that time, indeed, when Moses was born, Atlas is found to have lived, that great astronomer, the brother of Prometheus, and maternal grandson of the elder Mercury, of whom that Mercury Trismegistus was the grandson.
40. About the most mendacious vanity of the Egyptians, in which they ascribe to their science an antiquity of a hundred thousand years.

BOOK XVII. - The history of the city of God from the times of the prophets to Christ, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
By the favour of God we have treated distinctly of His promises made to Abraham, that both the nation of Israel according to the flesh, and all nations according to faith, should be his seed, and the City of God, proceeding according to the order of time, will point[343] out how they were fulfilled. Having therefore in the previous book come down to the reign of David, we shall now treat of what remains, so far as may seem sufficient for the object of this work, beginning at the same reign. Now, from the time when holy Samuel began to prophesy, and ever onward until the people of Israel was led captive into Babylonia, and until, according to the prophecy of holy Jeremiah, on Israel's return thence after seventy years, the house of God was built anew, this whole period is the prophetic age. For although both the patriarch Noah himself, in whose days the whole earth was destroyed by the flood, and others before and after him down to this time when there began to be kings over the people of God, may not undeservedly be styled prophets, on account of certain things pertaining to the city of God and the kingdom of heaven, which they either predicted or in any way signified should come to pass, and especially since we read that some of them, as Abraham and Moses, were expressly so styled, yet those are most and chiefly called the days of the prophets from the time when Samuel began to prophesy, who at God's comm and first anointed Saul to be king, and, on his rejection, David himself, whom others of his issue should succeed as long as it[Pg 166] was fitting they should do so. If, therefore, I wished to rehearse all that the prophets have predicted concerning Christ, while the city of God, with its members dying and being born in constant succession, ran its course through those times, this work would extend beyond all bounds. First, because the Scripture itself, even when, in treating in order of the kings and of their deeds and the events of their reigns, it seems to be occupied in narrating as with historical diligence the affairs transacted, will be found, if the things handled by it are considered with the aid of the Spirit of God, either more, or certainly not less, intent on foretelling things to come than on relating things past. And who that thinks even a little about it does not know how laborious and prolix a work it would be, and how many volumes it would require to search this out by thorough investigation and demonstrate it by argument? And then, because of that which without dispute pertains to prophecy, there are so many things concerning Christ and the kingdom of heaven, which is the city of God, that to explain these a larger discussion would be necessary than the due proportion of this work admits of. Therefore I shall, if I can, so limit myself, that in carrying through this work, I may, with God's help, neither say what is superfluous nor omit what is necessary.
2. At what time the promise of God was fulfilled concerning the land of Canaan, which even carnal Israel got in possession.
In the preceding book we said, that in the promise of God to Abraham two things were promised from the beginning, the one, namely, that his seed should possess the land of Canaan, which was intimated when it was said, "Go into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation;"[344] but the other far more excellent, concerning not the carnal but the spiritual seed, by which he is the father, not of the one nation of Israel, but of all nations who follow the footsteps of his faith, which began to be promised in these words, "And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."[345] And thereafter we showed by yet many other proofs that these two things were promised. Therefore the seed of Abraham, that is, the people of Israel according to the flesh, already was[Pg 167] in the land of promise; and there, not only by holding and possessing the cities of the enemies, but also by having kings, had already begun to reign, the promises of God concerning that people being already in great part fulfilled: not only those that were made to those three fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and whatever others were made in their times, but those also that were made through Moses himself, by whom the same people was set free from servitude in Egypt, and by whom all bygone things were revealed in his times, when he led the people through the wilderness. But neither by the illustrious leader Jesus the son of Nun, who led that people into the land of promise, and, after driving out the nations, divided it among the twelve tribes according to God's command, and died; nor after him, in the whole time of the judges, was the promise of God concerning the land of Canaan fulfilled, that it should extend from some river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates; nor yet was it still prophesied as to come, but its fulfilment was expected. And it was fulfilled through David, and Solomon his son, whose kingdom was extended over the whole promised space; for they subdued all those nations, and made them tri butary. And thus, under those kings, the seed of Abraham was established in the land of promise according to the flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan, so that nothing yet remained to the complete fulfilment of that earthly promise of God, except that, so far as pertains to temporal prosperity, the Hebrew nation should remain in the same land by the succession of posterity in an unshaken state even to the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the Lord its God. But since God knew it would not do this, He used His temporal punishments also for training His few faithful ones in it, and for giving needful warning to those who should afterwards be in all nations, in whom the other promise, revealed in the New Testament, was about to be fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ.
3. Of the threefold meaning of the prophecies, which are to be referred now to the earthly, now to the heavenly Jerusalem, and now again to both.
Wherefore just as that divine oracle to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the other prophetic signs or sayings which are given in the earlier sacred writings, so also the other prophecies[Pg 168] from this time of the kings pertain partly to the nation of Abraham's flesh, and partly to that seed of his in which all nations are blessed as fellow-heirs of Christ by the New Testament, to the possessing of eternal life and the kingdom of the heavens. Therefore they pertain partly to the bond maid who gendereth to bondage, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children; but partly to the free city of God, that is, the true Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whose children are all those that live according to God in the earth: but there are some things among them which are understood to pertain to both,to the bond maid properly, to the free woman figuratively.[346]
Therefore prophetic utterances of three kinds are to be found; forasmuch as there are some relating to the earthly Jerusalem, some to the heavenly, and some to both. I think it proper to prove what I say by examples. The prophet Nathan was sent to convict king David of heinous sin, and predict to him what future evils should be consequent on it. Who can question that this and the like pertain to the terrestrial city, whether publicly, that is, for the safety or help of the people, or privately, when there are given forth for each one's private good divine utterances whereby something of the future may be known for the use of temporal life? But where we read, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah, a new testament: not according to the testament that I settled for their fathers in the day when I laid hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my testament, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the testament that I will make for the house of Israel: after those days, saith the Lord, I will give my laws in their mind, and will write them upon their hearts, and I will see to them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people;"[347]without doubt this is prophesied to the Jerusalem above, whose reward is God Himself, and whose chief and entire good it is to have Him, and to be His. But this pertains to both, that the city of God is called Jerusalem, and that it is prophesied the house[Pg 169] of God shall be in it; and this prophecy seems to be fulfilled when king Solomon builds that most noble temple. For these things both happened in the earthly Jerusalem, as history shows, and were types of the heavenly Jerusalem. And this kind of prophecy, as it were compacted and commingled of both the others in the ancient canonical books, containing historical narratives, is of very great significance, and has exercised and exercises greatly the wits of those who search holy writ. For example, what we read of historically as predicted and fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, we must also inquire the allegorical meaning of, as it is to be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to faith. And so much is this the case, that some have thought there is nothing in these books either foretold and effected, or effected although not foretold, that does not insinuate something else which is to be referred by figurative signification to the city of God on high, and to her children who are pilgrims in this life. But if this be so, then the utterances of the prophets, or rather the whole of those Scriptures that are reckoned under the title of the Old Testament, will be not of three, but of two different kinds. For there will be nothing there which pertains to the terrestrial Jerusalem only, if whatever is there said and fulfilled of or concerning her signifies something which also refers by allegorical prefiguration to the celestial Jerusalem; but there will be only two kinds, one that pertains to the free Jerusalem, the other to both. But just as, I think, they err greatly who are of opinion that none of the records of affairs in that kind of writings mean anything more than that they so happened, so I think those very daring who contend that the whole gist of their contents lies in allegorical significations. Therefore I have said they are threefold, not twofold. Yet, in holding this opinion, I do not blame those who may be able to draw out of everything there a spiritual meaning, only saving, first of all, the historical truth. For the rest, what believer can doubt that those things are spoken vainly which are such that, whether said to have been done or to be yet to come, they do not beseem either human or divine affairs? Who would not recall these to spiritual understanding if he could, or confess that they should be recalled by him who is able?
[Pg 170]
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Of which thing I do not doubt what follows is to be understood, "And will divide Israel in twain," to wit, into Israel pertaining to the bond woman, and Israel pertaining to the free. For these two kinds were at first together, as Abraham still clave to the bond woman, until the barren, made, fruitful by the grace of God, cried, "Cast out the bond woman and her son."[401] We know, indeed, that on account of the sin of Solomon, in the reign of his son Rehoboam Israel was divided in two, and continued so, the separate parts having their own kings, until that whole nation was overthrown with a great destruction, and carried away by the Chaldeans. But what was this to Saul, when, if any such thing was threatened, it would be threatened against David himself, whose son Solomon was? Finally, the Hebrew nation is not now divided internally, but is dispersed through the earth indiscriminately, in the fellowship of the same error. But that division with which God threatened the kingdom and people in the person of Saul, who represented them, is shown to be eternal and unchangeable by this which is added, "And He will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as a man, that He should repent; who threatens and does not persist,"that is, a man threatens and does not persist, but not[Pg 188] God, who does not repent like man. For when we read that He repents, a change of circumstance is meant, flowing from the divine immutable foreknowledge. Therefore, when God is said not to repent, it is to be understood that He does not change.
We see that this sentence concerning this division of the people of Israel, divinely uttered in these words, has been altogether irremediable and quite perpetual. For whoever have turned, or are turning, or shall turn thence to Christ, it has been according to the foreknowledge of God, not according to the one and the same nature of the human race. Certainly none of the Israelites, who, cleaving to Christ, have continued in Him, shall ever be among those Israelites who persist in being His enemies even to the end of this life, but shall for ever remain in the separation which is here foretold. For the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,[402] profiteth nothing, unless because it bears witness to the New Testament. Otherwise, however long Moses is read, the veil is put over their heart; but when any one shall turn thence to Christ, the veil shall be taken away.[403] For the very desire of those who turn is changed from the old to the new, so that each no longer desires to obtain carnal but spiritual felicity. Wherefore that great prophet Samuel himself, before he had anointed Saul, when he had cried to the Lord for Israel, and He had heard him, and when he had offered a whole burnt-offering, as the aliens were coming to battle against the people of God, and the Lord thundered above them and they were confused, and fell before Israel and were overcome; [then] he took one stone and set it up between the old and new Massephat (Mizpeh), and called its name Ebenezer, which means "the stone of the helper," and said, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."[404] Massephat is interpreted "desire." That stone of the helper is the mediation of the Saviour, by which we go from the old Massephat to the new,that is, from the desire with which carnal happiness was expected in the carnal kingdom to the desire with which the truest spiritual happiness is expected in the kingdom of heaven; and since nothing is better than that, the Lord helpeth us hitherto.
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Just as in that psalm also where Christ is most openly proclaimed as Priest, even as He is here as King, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."[454] That Christ sits on the right hand of God the Father is believed, not seen; that His enemies also are put under His feet doth not yet appear; it is being done, [therefore] it will appear at last: yea, this is now believed, afterward it shall be seen. But what follows, "The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Sion, and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,"[455] is so clear, that to deny it would imply not merely unbelief and mistake, but downright impudence. And even enemies must certainly confess that out of Sion has been sent the law of Christ which we call the gospel, and acknowledge as the rod of His strength. But that He rules in the midst of His enemies, these same enemies among whom He rules themselves bear witness, gnashing their teeth and consuming away, and having power to do nothing against Him. Then what he says a little after,[Pg 205] "The Lord hath sworn and will not repent,"[456] by which words He intimates that what He adds is immutable, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,"[457] who is permitted to doubt of whom these things are said, seeing that now there is nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice after the order of Aaron, and everywhere men offer under Christ as the Priest, which Melchizedek showed when he blessed Abraham? Therefore to these manifest things are to be referred, when rightly understood, those things in the same psalm that are set down a little more obscurely, and we have already made known in our popular sermons how these things are to be rightly understood. So also in that where Christ utters through prophecy the humiliation of His passion, saying, "They pierced my hands and feet; they counted all my bones. Yea, they looked and stared at me."[458] By which words he certainly meant His body stretched out on the cross, with the hands and feet pierced and perforated by the striking through of the nails, and that He had in that way made Himself a spectacle to those who looked and stared. And he adds, "They parted my garments among them, and over my vesture they cast lots."[459] How this prophecy has been fulfilled the Gospel history narrates. Then, indeed, the other things also which are said there less openly are rightly understood when they agree with those which shine with so great clearness; especially because those things also which we do not believe as past, but survey as present, are beheld by the whole world, being now exhibited just as they are read of in this very psalm as predicted so long before. For it is there said a little after, "All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule the nations."
18. Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in which the death and resurrection of the Lord are prophesied.

BOOK XVI. - The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
IN THE FORMER PART OF THIS BOOK, FROM THE FIRST TO THE TWELFTH CHAPTER, THE PROGRESS OF THE TWO CITIES, THE EARTHLY AND THE HEAVENLY, FROM NOAH TO Abraham, IS EXHIBITED FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE: IN THE LATTER PART, THE PROGRESS OF THE HEAVENLY ALONE, FROM Abraham TO THE KINGS OF ISRAEL, IS THE SUBJECT.
1. Whether, after the deluge, from Noah to Abraham, any families can be found who lived according to God.
It is difficult to discover from Scripture, whether, after the deluge, traces of the holy city are continuous, or are so interrupted by intervening seasons of godlessness, that not a single worshipper of the one true God was found among men; because from Noah, who, with his wife, three sons, and as many daughters-in-law, achieved deliverance in the ark from the destruction of the deluge, down to Abraham, we do not find in the canonical books that the piety of any one is celebrated by express divine testimony, unless it be in the case of Noah, who commends with a prophetic benediction his two sons Shem and Japheth, while he beheld and foresaw what was long afterwards to happen. It was also by this prophetic spirit that, when his middle son that is, the son who was younger than the first and older than the last bornhad sinned against him, he cursed him not in his own person, but in his son's (his own grandson's), in the words, "Cursed be the lad Canaan; a servant shall he be unto his brethren."[221] Now Canaan was born of Ham, who, so far from covering his sleeping father's nakedness, had divulged it. For the same reason also he subjoins the blessing on his two other sons, the oldest and youngest, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall gladden Japheth, and he shall dwell in the houses of Shem."[222] And[Pg 105] so, too, the planting of the vine by Noah, and his intoxication by its fruit, and his nakedness while he slept, and the other things done at that time, and recorded, are all of them pregnant with prophetic meanings, and veiled in mysteries.[223]
2. What was prophetically prefigured in the sons of Noah.
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These secrets of divine Scripture we investigate as well as we can. All will not accept our interpretation with equal confidence, but all hold it certain that these things were neither done nor recorded without some foreshadowing of future events, and that they are to be referred only to Christ and His church, which is the city of God, proclaimed from the very beginning of human history by figures which we now see everywhere accomplished. From the blessing of the two sons of Noah, and the cursing of the middle son, down to Abraham, or for more than a thousand years, there is, as I have said, no mention of any righteous persons who worshipped God. I do not therefore conclude that there were none; but it had been tedious to mention every one, and would have displayed historical accuracy rather than prophetic foresight. The object of the writer of these sacred books, or rather of the Spirit of God in him, is not only to record the past, but to depict the future, so far as it regards the city of God; for whatever is said of those who are not its citizens, is given either for her instruction, or as a foil to enhance her[Pg 108] glory. Yet we are not to suppose that all that is recorded has some signification; but those things which have no signification of their own are interwoven for the sake of the things which are significant. It is only the ploughshare that cleaves the soil; but to effect this, other parts of the plough are requisite. It is only the strings in harps and other musical instruments which produce melodious sounds; but that they may do so, there are other parts of the instrument which are not indeed struck by those who sing, but are connected with the strings which are struck, and produce musical notes. So in this prophetic history some things are narrated which have no significance, but are, as it were, the framework to which the significant things are attached.
3. Of the generations of the three sons of Noah.
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It remains to mention the sons of Shem, Noah's eldest son; for to him this genealogical narrative gradually ascends from the youngest. But in the commencement of the record of Shem's sons there is an obscurity which calls for explanation, since it is closely connected with the object of our investigation. For we read, "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Heber, the brother of Japheth the elder, were children born."[235] This is the order of the words: And to Shem was born Heber, even to himself, that is, to Shem himself was born Heber, and Shem is the father of all his children. We are intended to understand that Shem is the patriarch of all his posterity who were to be mentioned, whether sons, grandsons,[Pg 110] great-grandsons, or descendants at any remove. For Shem did not beget Heber, who was indeed in the fifth generation from him. For Shem begat, among other sons, Arphaxad; Arphaxad begat Cainan, Cainan begat Salah, Salah begat Heber. And it was with good reason that he was named first among Shem's offspring, taking precedence even of his sons, though only a grandchild of the fifth generation; for from him, as tradition says, the Hebrews derived their name, though the other etymology which derives the name from Abraham (as if Abrahews) may possibly be correct. But there can be little doubt that the former is the right etymology, and that they were called after Heber, Heberews, and then, dropping a letter, Hebrews; and so was their language called Hebrew, which was spoken by none but the people of Israel among whom was the city of God, mysteriously prefigured in all the people, and truly present in the saints. Six of Shem's sons then are first named, then four grandsons born to one of these sons; then it mentions another son of Shem, who begat a grandson; and his son, again, or Shem's great-grandson, was Heber. And Heber begat two sons, and called the one Peleg, which means "dividing;" and Scripture subjoins the reason of this name, saying, "for in his days was the earth divided." What this means will afterwards appear. Heber's other son begat twelve sons; consequently all Shem's descendants are twenty-seven. The total number of the progeny of the three sons of Noah is seventy-three, fifteen by Japheth, thirty-one by Ham, twenty-seven by Shem. Then Scripture adds, "These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations." And so of the whole number: "These are the families of the sons of Noah after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the isles of the nations dispersed through the earth after the flood." From which we gather that the seventy-three (or rather, as I shall presently show, seventy-two) were not individuals, but nations. For in a former passage, when the sons of Japheth were enumerated, it is said in conclusion, "By these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his language, in their tribes, and in their nations."
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10. Of the genealogy of Shem, in whose line the city of God is preserved till the time of Abraham.
It is necessary, therefore, to preserve the series of generations descending from Shem, for the sake of exhibiting the city of God after the flood; as before the flood it was exhibited in the series of generations descending from Seth. And therefore does divine Scripture, after exhibiting the earthly city as Babylon or "Confusion," revert to the patriarch Shem, and recapitulate the generations from him to Abraham, specifying besides, the year in which each father begat the son that belonged to this line, and how long he lived. And unquestionably it is this which fulfils the promise I made, that it should appear why it is said of the sons of Heber, "The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided."[248] For what can we understand by the division of the earth, if not the diversity of languages? And, therefore, omitting the other sons of Shem, who are not concerned in this matter, Scripture gives the genealogy of those by whom the line runs on to Abraham, as before the flood those are given who carried on the line to Noah from Seth. Accordingly this series of generations begins thus: "These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two[Pg 120] years after the flood. And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters." In like manner it registers the rest, naming the year of his life in which each begat the son who belonged to that line which extends to Abraham. It specifies, too, how many years he lived thereafter, begetting sons and daughters, that we may not childishly suppose that the men named were the only men, but may understand how the population increased, and how regions and kingdoms so vast could be populated by the descendants of Shem; especially the kingdom of Assyria, from which Ninus subdued the surrounding nations, reigning with brilliant prosperity, and bequeathing to his descendants a vast but thoroughly consolidated empire, which held together for many centuries.
But to avoid needless prolixity, we shall mention not the number of years each member of this series lived, but only the year of his life in which he begat his heir, that we may thus reckon the number of years from the flood to Abraham, and may at the same time leave room to touch briefly and cursorily upon some other matters necessary to our argument. In the second year, then, after the flood, Shem when he was a hundred years old begat Arphaxad; Arphaxad when he was 135 years old begat Cainan; Cainan when he was 130 years begat Salah. Salah himself, too, was the same age when he begat Eber. Eber lived 134 years, and begat Peleg, in whose days the earth was divided. Peleg himself lived 130 years, and begat Reu; and Reu lived 132 years, and begat Serug; Serug 130, and begat Nahor; and Nahor 79, and begat Terah; and Terah 70, and begat Abram, whose name God afterwards changed into Abraham. There are thus from the flood to Abraham 1072 years, according to the Vulgate or Septuagint versions. In the Hebrew copies far fewer years are given; and for this either no reason or a not very credible one is given.
When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these seventy-two nations, we cannot affirm that while they had but one lip, that is, one language, the human race had departed from the worship of the true God, and that genuine godliness had survived only in those generations which descend from Shem through Arphaxad and reach to Abraham;[Pg 121] but from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven, a symbol of godless exaltation, the city or society of the wicked becomes apparent. Whether it was only disguised before, or non-existent; whether both cities remained after the flood,the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed, and in their posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son and his descendants, from whom sprang that mighty hunter against the Lord,is not easily determined. For possibly and certainly this is more credible there were despisers of God among the descendants of the two sons, even before Babylon was founded, and worshippers of God among the descendants of Ham. Certainly neither race was ever obliterated from earth. For in both the Psalms in which it is said, "They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one," we read further, "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord."[249] There was then a people of God even at that time. And therefore the words, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one," were said of the sons of men, not of the sons of God. For it had been previously said, "God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if any understood and sought after God;" and then follow the words which demonstrate that all the sons of men, that is, all who belong to the city which lives according to man, not according to God, are reprobate.
11. That the original language in use among men was that which was afterwards called Hebrew, from Heber, in whose family it was preserved when the confusion of tongues occurred.
Wherefore, as the fact of all using one language did not secure the absence of sin-infected men from the race,for even before the deluge there was one language, and yet all but the single family of just Noah were found worthy of destruction by the flood,so when the nations, by a prouder godlessness, earned the punishment of the dispersion and the confusion of tongues, and the city of the godless was called Confusion or Babylon, there was still the house of Heber in which the primitive language of the race survived. And therefore, as I have already mentioned, when an enumeration is made of the[Pg 122] sons of Shem, who each founded a nation, Heber is first mentioned, although he was of the fifth generation from Shem. And because, when the other races were divided by their own peculiar languages, his family preserved that language which is not unreasonably believed to have been the common language of the race, it was on this account thenceforth named Hebrew. For it then became necessary to distinguish this language from the rest by a proper name; though, while there was only one, it had no other name than the language of man, or human speech, it alone being spoken by the whole human race. Some one will say: If the earth was divided by languages in the days of Peleg, Heber's son, that language, which was formerly common to all, should rather have been called after Peleg. But we are to understand that Heber himself gave to his son this name Peleg, which means Division; because he was born when the earth was divided, that is, at the very time of the division, and that this is the meaning of the words, "In his days the earth was divided."[250] For unless Heber had been still alive when the languages were multiplied, the language which was preserved in his house would not have been called after him. We are induced to believe that this was the primitive and common language, because the multiplication and change of languages was introduced as a punishment, and it is fit to ascribe to the people of God an immunity from this punishment. Nor is it without significance that this is the language which Abraham retained, and that he could not transmit it to all his descendants, but only to those of Jacob's line, who distinctively and eminently constituted God's people, and received His covenants, and were Christ's progenitors according to the flesh. In the same way, Heber himself did not transmit that language to all his posterity, but only to the line from which Abraham sprang. And thus, although it is not expressly stated, that when the wicked were building Babylon there was a godly seed remaining, this indistinctness is intended to stimulate research rather than to elude it. For when we see that originally there was one common language, and that Heber is mentioned before all Shem's sons, though he belonged to the fifth generation from[Pg 123] him, and that the language which the patriarchs and prophets used, not only in their conversation, but in the authoritative language of Scripture, is called Hebrew, when we are asked where that primitive and common language was preserved after the confusion of tongues, certainly, as there can be no doubt that those among whom it was preserved were exempt from the punishment it embodied, what other suggestion can we make, than that it survived in the family of him whose name it took, and that this is no small proof of the righteousness of this family, that the punishment with which the other families were visited did not fall upon it?
But yet another question is mooted: How did Heber and his son Peleg each found a nation, if they had but one language? For no doubt the Hebrew nation propagated from Heber through Abraham, and becoming through him a great people, is one nation. How, then, are all the sons of the three branches of Noah's family enumerated as founding a nation each, if Heber and Peleg did not so? It is very probable that the giant Nimrod founded also his nation, and that Scripture has named him separately on account of the extraordinary dimensions of his empire and of his body, so that the number of seventy-two nations remains. But Peleg was mentioned, not because he founded a nation (for his race and language are Hebrew), but on account of the critical time at which he was born, all the earth being then divided. Nor ought we to be surprised that the giant Nimrod lived to the time in which Babylon was founded and the confusion of tongues occurred, and the consequent division of the earth. For though Heber was in the sixth generation from Noah, and Nimrod in the fourth, it does not follow that they could not be alive at the same time. For when the generations are few, they live longer and are born later; but when they are many, they live a shorter time, and come into the world earlier. We are to understand that, when the earth was divided, the descendants of Noah who are registered as founders of nations were not only already born, but were of an age to have immense families, worthy to be called tribes or nations. And therefore we must by no means suppose that they were born in the order in which they were set down; otherwise, how could the twelve sons of Joktan,[Pg 124] another son of Heber's, and brother of Peleg, have already founded nations, if Joktan was born, as he is registered, after his brother Peleg, since the earth was divided at Peleg's birth? We are therefore to understand that, though Peleg is named first, he was born long after Joktan, whose twelve sons had already families so large as to admit of their being divided by different languages. There is nothing extraordinary in the last born being first named: of the sons of Noah, the descendants of Japheth are first named; then the sons of Ham, who was the second son; and last the sons of Shem, who was the first and oldest. Of these nations the names have partly survived, so that at this day we can see from whom they have sprung, as the Assyrians from Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but partly have been altered in the lapse of time, so that the most learned men, by profound research in ancient records, have scarcely been able to discover the origin, I do not say of all, but of some of these nations. There is, for example, nothing in the name Egyptians to show that they are descended from Misraim, Ham's son, nor in the name Ethiopians to show a connection with Cush, though such is said to be the origin of these nations. And if we take a general survey of the names, we shall find that more have been changed than have remained the same.
12. Of the era in Abraham's life from which a new period in the holy succession begins.
Let us now survey the progress of the city of God from the era of the patriarch Abraham, from whose time it begins to be more conspicuous, and the divine promises which are now fulfilled in Christ are more fully revealed. We learn, then, from the intimations of holy Scripture, that Abraham was born in the country of the Chaldeans, a land belonging to the Assyrian empire. Now, even at that time impious superstitions were rife with the Chaldeans, as with other nations. The family of Terah, to which Abraham belonged, was the only one in which the worship of the true God survived, and the only one, we may suppose, in which the Hebrew language was preserved; although Joshua the son of Nun tells us that even this family served other gods in Mesopotamia.[251] The[Pg 125] other descendants of Heber gradually became absorbed in other races and other languages. And thus, as the single family of Noah was preserved through the deluge of water to renew the human race, so, in the deluge of superstition that flooded the whole world, there remained but the one family of Terah in which the seed of God's city was preserved. And as, when Scripture has enumerated the generations prior to Noah, with their ages, and explained the cause of the flood before God began to speak to Noah about the building of the ark, it is said, "These are the generations of Noah;" so also now, after enumerating the generations from Shem, Noah's son, down to Abraham, it then signalizes an era by saying, "These are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah."[252] This Iscah is supposed to be the same as Sarah, Abraham's wife.
13. Why, in the account of Terah's emigration, on his forsaking the Chaldeans and passing over into Mesopotamia, no mention is made of his son Nahor.
Next it is related how Terah with his family left the region of the Chaldeans and came into Mesopotamia, and dwelt in Haran. But nothing is said about one of his sons called Nahor, as if he had not taken him along with him. For the narrative runs thus: "And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarah his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and led them forth out of the region of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; and he came into Haran, and dwelt there."[253] Nahor and Milcah his wife are nowhere named here. But afterwards, when Abraham sent his servant to take a wife for his son Isaac, we find it thus written: "And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his lord, and of all the goods of his lord, with him; and arose, and went into Mesopotamia, into the city of Nahor."[254] This and other testimonies of this sacred history show that Nahor, Abraham's brother, had also left the[Pg 126] region of the Chaldeans, and fixed his abode in Mesopotamia, where Abraham dwelt with his father. Why, then, did the Scripture not mention him, when Terah with his family went forth out of the Chaldean nation and dwelt in Haran, since it mentions that he took with him not only Abraham his son, but also Sarah his daughter-in-law, and Lot his grandson? The only reason we can think of is, that perhaps he had lapsed from the piety of his father and brother, and adhered to the superstition of the Chaldeans, and had afterwards emigrated thence, either through penitence, or because he was persecuted as a suspected person. For in the book called Judith, when Holofernes, the enemy of the Israelites, inquired what kind of nation that might be, and whether war should be made against them, Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, answered him thus: "Let our lord now hear a word from the mouth of thy servant, and I will declare unto thee the truth concerning the people which dwelleth near thee in this hill country, and there shall no lie come out of the mouth of thy servant. For this people is descended from the Chaldeans, and they dwelt heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the gods of their fathers, which were glorious in the land of the Chaldeans, but went out of the way of their ancestors, and adored the God of heaven, whom they knew; and they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia, and dwelt there many days. And their God said to them, that they should depart from their habitation, and go into the land of Canaan; and they dwelt,"[255] etc., as Achior the Ammonite narrates. Whence it is manifest that the house of Terah had suffered persecution from the Chaldeans for the true piety with which they worshipped the one and true God.
14. Of the years of Terah, who completed his lifetime in Haran.
On Terah's death in Mesopotamia, where he is said to have lived 205 years, the promises of God made to Abraham now begin to be pointed out; for thus it is written: "And the days of Terah in Haran were two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran."[256] This is not to be taken as if he had spent all his days there, but that he there completed the days of his[Pg 127] life, which were two hundred and five years: otherwise it would not be known how many years Terah lived, since it is not said in what year of his life he came into Haran; and it is absurd to suppose that, in this series of generations, where it is carefully recorded how many years each one lived, his age was the only one not put on record. For although some whom the same Scripture mentions have not their age recorded, they are not in this series, in which the reckoning of time is continuously indicated by the death of the parents and the succession of the children. For this series, which is given in order from Adam to Noah, and from him down to Abraham, contains no one without the number of the years of his life.
15. Of the time of the migration of Abraham, when, according to the commandment of God, he went out from Haran.
When, after the record of the death of Terah, the father of Abraham, we next read, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,"[257] etc., it is not to be supposed, because this follows in the order of the narrative, that it also followed in the chronological order of events. For if it were so, there would be an insoluble difficulty. For after these words of God which were spoken to Abraham, the Scripture says: "And Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him. Now Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran."[258] How can this be true if he departed from Haran after his father's death? For when Terah was seventy years old, as is intimated above, he begat Abraham; and if to this number we add the seventy-five years which Abraham reckoned when he went out of Haran, we get 145 years. Therefore that was the number of the years of Terah, when Abraham departed out of that city of Mesopotamia; for he had reached the seventy-fifth year of his life, and thus his father, who begat him in the seventieth year of his life, had reached, as was said, his 145th. Therefore he did not depart thence after his father's death, that is, after the 205 years his father lived; but the year of his departure from that place, seeing it was his seventy-fifth, is inferred beyond a doubt to have been the 145th of his father, who begat him[Pg 128] in his seventieth year. And thus it is to be understood that the Scripture, according to its custom, has gone back to the time which had already been passed by the narrative; just as above, when it had mentioned the grandsons of Noah, it said that they were in their nations and tongues; and yet afterwards, as if this also had followed in order of time, it says, "And the whole earth was of one lip, and one speech for all."[259] How, then, could they be said to be in their own nations and according to their own tongues, if there was one for all; except because the narrative goes back to gather up what it had passed over? Here, too, in the same way, after saying, "And the days of Terah in Haran were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran," the Scripture, going back to what had been passed over in order to complete what had been begun about Terah, says, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country,"[260] etc. After which words of God it is added, "And Abram departed, as the Lord spake unto him; and Lot went with him. But Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran." Therefore it was done when his father was in the 145th year of his age; for it was then the seventy-fifth of his own. But this question is also solved in another way, that the seventy-five years of Abraham when he departed out of Haran are reckoned from the year in which he was delivered from the fire of the Chaldeans, not from that of his birth, as if he was rather to be held as having been born then.
Now the blessed Stephen, in narrating these things in the Acts of the Apostles, says: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and come into the land which I will show thee."[261] According to these words of Stephen, God spoke to Abraham, not after the death of his father, who certainly died in Haran, where his son also dwelt with him, but before he dwelt in that city, although he was already in Mesopotamia. Therefore he had already departed from the Chaldeans. So that when Stephen adds, "Then Abraham went out of the land of[Pg 129] the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran,"[262] this does not point out what took place after God spoke to him (for it was not after these words of God that he went out of the land of the Chaldeans, since he says that God spoke to him in Mesopotamia), but the word "then" which he uses refers to that whole period from his going out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelling in Haran. Likewise in what follows, "And thenceforth, when his father was dead, he settled him in this land, wherein ye now dwell, and your fathers," he does not say, after his father was dead he went out from Haran; but thenceforth he settled him here, after his father was dead. It is to be understood, therefore, that God had spoken to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran; but that he came to Haran with his father, keeping in mind the precept of God, and that he went out thence in his own seventy-fifth year, which was his father's 145th. But he says that his settlement in the land of Canaan, not his going forth from Haran, took place after his father's death; because his father was already dead when he purchased the land, and personally entered on possession of it. But when, on his having already settled in Mesopotamia, that is, already gone out of the land of the Chaldeans, God says, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,"[263] this means, not that he should cast out his body from thence, for he had already done that, but that he should tear away his soul. For he had not gone out from thence in mind, if he was held by the hope and desire of returning,a hope and desire which was to be cut off by God's comm and and help, and by his own obedience. It would indeed be no incredible supposition that afterwards, when Nahor followed his father, Abraham then fulfilled the precept of the Lord, that he should depart out of Haran with Sarah his wife and Lot his brother's son.
16. Of the order and nature of the promises of God which were made to Abraham.
God's promises made to Abraham are now to be considered; for in these the oracles of our God,[264] that is, of the true God,[Pg 130] began to appear more openly concerning the godly people, whom prophetic authority foretold. The first of these reads thus: "And the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and go into a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name; and thou shalt be blessed: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all tribes of the earth be blessed."[265] Now it is to be observed that two things are promised to Abraham, the one, that his seed should possess the land of Canaan, which is intimated when it is said, "Go into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation;" but the other far more excellent, not about the carnal but the spiritual seed, through which he is the father, not of the one Israelite nation, but of all nations who follow the footprints of his faith, which was first promised in these words, "And in thee shall all tribes of the earth be blessed." Eusebius thought this promise was made in Abraham's seventy-fifth year, as if soon after it was made Abraham had departed out of Haran; because the Scripture cannot be contradicted, in which we read, "Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran." But if this promise was made in that year, then of course Abraham was staying in Haran with his father; for he could not depart thence unless he had first dwelt there. Does this, then, contradict what Stephen says, "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran?"[266] But it is to be understood that the whole took place in the same year,both the promise of God before Abraham dwelt in Haran, and his dwelling in Haran, and his departure thence,not only because Eusebius in the Chronicles reckons from the year of this promise, and shows that after 430 years the exodus from Egypt took place, when the law was given, but because the Apostle Paul also mentions it.
17. Of the three most famous kingdoms of the nations, of which one, that is, the Assyrian, was already very eminent when Abraham was born.
During the same period there were three famous kingdoms[Pg 131] of the nations, in which the city of the earth-born, that is, the society of men living according to man under the domination of the fallen angels, chiefly flourished, namely, the three kingdoms of Sicyon, Egypt, and Assyria. Of these, Assyria was much the most powerful and sublime; for that king Ninus, son of Belus, had subdued the people of all Asia except India. By Asia I now mean not that part which is one province of this greater Asia, but what is called Universal Asia, which some set down as the half, but most as the third part of the whole world,the three being Asia, Europe, and Africa, thereby making an unequal division. For the part called Asia stretches from the south through the east even to the north; Europe from the north even to the west; and Africa from the west even to the south. Thus we see that two, Europe and Africa, contain one half of the world, and Asia alone the other half. And these two parts are made by the circumstance, that there enters between them from the ocean all the Mediterranean water, which makes this great sea of ours. So that, if you divide the world into two parts, the east and the west, Asia will be in the one, and Europe and Africa in the other. So that of the three kingdoms then famous, one, namely Sicyon, was not under the Assyrians, because it was in Europe; but as for Egypt, how could it fail to be subject to the empire which ruled all Asia with the single exception of India? In Assyria, therefore, the dominion of the impious city had the pre-eminence. Its head was Babylon,an earth-born city, most fitly named, for it means confusion. There Ninus reigned after the death of his father Belus, who first had reigned there sixty-five years. His son Ninus, who, on his father's death, succeeded to the kingdom, reigned fifty-two years, and had been king forty-three years when Abraham was born, which was about the 1200th year before Rome was founded, as it were another Babylon in the west.
18. Of the repeated address of God to Abraham, in which He promised the land of Canaan to him and to his seed.
Abraham, then, having departed out of Haran in the seventy-fifth year of his own age, and in the hundred and forty-fifth of his father's, went with Lot, his brother's son, and Sarah his wife, into the land of Canaan, and came even to[Pg 132] Sichem, where again he received the divine oracle, of which it is thus written: "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said unto him, Unto thy seed will I give this land."[267] Nothing is promised here about that seed in which he is made the father of all nations, but only about that by which he is the father of the one Israelite nation; for by this seed that land was possessed.
19. Of the divine preservation of Sarah's chastity in Egypt, when Abraham had called her not his wife but his sister.
Having built an altar there, and called upon God, Abraham proceeded thence and dwelt in the desert, and was compelled by pressure of famine to go on into Egypt. There he called his wife his sister, and told no lie. For she was this also, because she was near of blood; just as Lot, on account of the same nearness, being his brother's son, is called his brother. Now he did not deny that she was his wife, but held his peace about it, committing to God the defence of his wife's chastity, and providing as a man against human wiles; because if he had not provided against the danger as much as he could, he would have been tempting God rather than trusting in Him. We have said enough about this matter against the calumnies of Faustus the Manichan. At last what Abraham had expected the Lord to do took place. For Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who had taken her to him as his wife, restored her to her husb and on being severely plagued. And far be it from us to believe that she was defiled by lying with another; because it is much more credible that, by these great afflictions, Pharaoh was not permitted to do this.
20. Of the parting of Lot and Abraham, which they agreed to without breach of charity.
On Abraham's return out of Egypt to the place he had left, Lot, his brother's son, departed from him into the land of Sodom, without breach of charity. For they had grown rich, and began to have many herdmen of cattle, and when these strove together, they avoided in this way the pugnacious discord of their families. Indeed, as human affairs go, this cause might even have given rise to some strife between themselves. Consequently these are the words of Abraham to Lot, when taking[Pg 133] precaution against this evil, "Let there be no strife between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Behold, is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself from me: if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will go to the right; or if thou wilt go to the right hand, I will go to the left."[268] From this, perhaps, has arisen a pacific custom among men, that when there is any partition of earthly things, the greater should make the division, the less the choice.
21. Of the third promise of God, by which He assured the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed in perpetuity.
Now, when Abraham and Lot had separated, and dwelt apart, owing to the necessity of supporting their families, and not to vile discord, and Abraham was in the land of Canaan, but Lot in Sodom, the Lord said to Abraham in a third oracle, "Lift up thine eyes, and look from the place where thou now art, to the north, and to Africa, and to the east, and to the sea; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: if any one can number the dust of the earth, thy seed shall also be numbered. Arise, and walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for unto thee will I give it."[269] It does not clearly appear whether in this promise that also is contained by which he is made the father of all nations. For the clause, "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth," may seem to refer to this, being spoken by that figure the Greeks call hyperbole, which indeed is figurative, not literal. But no person of understanding can doubt in what manner the Scripture uses this and other figures. For that figure (that is, way of speaking) is used when what is said is far larger than what is meant by it; for who does not see how incomparably larger the number of the dust must be than that of all men can be from Adam himself down to the end of the world? How much greater, then, must it be than the seed of Abraham,not only that pertaining to the nation of Israel, but also that which is and shall be according to the imitation of faith in all nations of the whole wide world! For that seed is indeed very small in[Pg 134] comparison with the multitude of the wicked, although even those few of themselves make an innumerable multitude, which by a hyperbole is compared to the dust of the earth. Truly that multitude which was promised to Abraham is not innumerable to God, although to man; but to God not even the dust of the earth is so. Further, the promise here made may be understood not only of the nation of Israel, but of the whole seed of Abraham, which may be fitly compared to the dust for multitude, because regarding it also there is the promise[270] of many children, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. But we have therefore said that this does not clearly appear, because the multitude even of that one nation, which was born according to the flesh of Abraham through his grandson Jacob, has increased so much as to fill almost all parts of the world. Consequently, even it might by hyperbole be compared to the dust for multitude, because even it alone is innumerable by man. Certainly no one questions that only that land is meant which is called Canaan. But that saying, "To thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever," may move some, if by "for ever" they understand "to eternity." But if in this passage they take "for ever" thus, as we firmly hold it means, that the beginning of the world to come is to be ordered from the end of the present, there is still no difficulty, because, although the Israelites are expelled from Jerusalem, they still remain in other cities in the land of Canaan, and shall remain even to the end; and when that whole land is inhabited by Christians, they also are the very seed of Abraham.
22. Of Abraham's overcoming the enemies of Sodom, when he delivered Lot from captivity and was blessed by Melchizedek the priest.
Having received this oracle of promise, Abraham migrated, and remained in another place of the same land, that is, beside the oak of Mamre, which was Hebron. Then on the invasion of Sodom, when five kings carried on war against four, and Lot was taken captive with the conquered Sodomites, Abraham delivered him from the enemy, leading with him to battle three hundred and eighteen of his home-born servants, and won the victory for the kings of Sodom, but would take nothing of the spoils when offered by the king[Pg 135] for whom he had won them. He was then openly blessed by Melchizedek, who was priest of God Most High, about whom many and great things are written in the epistle which is inscribed to the Hebrews, which most say is by the Apostle Paul, though some deny this. For then first appeared the sacrifice which is now offered to God by Christians in the whole wide world, and that is fulfilled which long after the event was said by the prophet to Christ, who was yet to come in the flesh, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,"[271]that is to say, not after the order of Aaron, for that order was to be taken away when the things shone forth which were intimated beforeh and by these shadows.
23. Of the word of the Lord to Abraham, by which it was promised to him that his posterity should be multiplied according to the multitude of the stars; on believing which he was declared justified while yet in uncircumcision.
The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision also. For when God promised him protection and exceeding great reward, he, being solicitous about posterity, said that a certain Eliezer of Damascus, born in his house, would be his heir. Immediately he was promised an heir, not that house-born servant, but one who was to come forth of Abraham himself; and again a seed innumerable, not as the dust of the earth, but as the stars of heaven,which rather seems to me a promise of a posterity exalted in celestial felicity. For, so far as multitude is concerned, what are the stars of heaven to the dust of the earth, unless one should say the comparison is like inasmuch as the stars also cannot be numbered? For it is not to be believed that all of them can be seen. For the more keenly one observes them, the more does he see. So that it is to be supposed some remain concealed from the keenest observers, to say nothing of those stars which are said to rise and set in another part of the world most remote from us. Finally, the authority of this book condemns those like Aratus or Eudoxus, or any others who boast that they have found out and written down the complete number of the stars. Here, indeed, is set down that sentence which the apostle quotes in order to commend the grace of God, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness;"[272] lest the circumcision[Pg 136] should glory, and be unwilling to receive the uncircumcised nations to the faith of Christ. For at the time when he believed, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness, Abraham had not yet been circumcised.
24. Of the meaning of the sacrifice Abraham was commanded to offer when he supplicated to be taught about those things he had believed.
In the same vision, God in speaking to him also says, "I am God that brought thee out of the region of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it."[273] And when Abram asked whereby he might know that he should inherit it, God said to him, "Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another; but the birds divided he not. And the fowls came down," as it is written, "on the carcases, and Abram sat down by them. But about the going down of the sun, great fear fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to servitude; and shall afflict them four hundred years: but the nation whom they shall serve will I judge; and afterward shall they come out hither with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; kept in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And when the sun was setting, there was a flame, and a smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, that passed through between those pieces. In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."[274]
All these things were said and done in a vision from God; but it would take long, and would exceed the scope of this work, to treat of them exactly in detail. It is enough that we should know that, after it was said Abram believed in[Pg 137] God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, he did not fail in faith in saying, "Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" for the inheritance of that land was promised to him. Now he does not say, How shall I know, as if he did not yet believe; but he says, "Whereby shall I know," meaning that some sign might be given by which he might know the manner of those things which he had believed, just as it is not for lack of faith the Virgin Mary says, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?"[275] for she inquired as to the way in which that should take place which she was certain would come to pass. And when she asked this, she was told, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee."[276] Here also, in fine, a symbol was given, consisting of three animals, a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, and two birds, a turtle-dove and pigeon, that he might know that the things which he had not doubted should come to pass were to happen in accordance with this symbol. Whether, therefore, the heifer was a sign that the people should be put under the law, the she-goat that the same people was to become sinful, the ram that they should reign (and these animals are said to be of three years old for this reason, that there are three remarkable divisions of time, from Adam to Noah, and from him to Abraham, and from him to David, who, on the rejection of Saul, was first established by the will of the Lord in the kingdom of the Israelite nation: in this third division, which extends from Abraham to David, that people grew up as if passing through the third age of life), or whether they had some other more suitable meaning, still I have no doubt whatever that spiritual things were prefigured by them as well as by the turtle-dove and pigeon. And it is said, "But the birds divided he not," because carnal men are divided among themselves, but the spiritual not at all, whether they seclude themselves from the busy conversation of men, like the turtle-dove, or dwell among them, like the pigeon; for both birds are simple and harmless, signifying that even in the Israelite people, to which that land was to be given, there would be individuals who were children of the promise, and[Pg 138] heirs of the kingdom that is[277] to remain in eternal felicity. But the fowls coming down on the divided carcases represent nothing good, but the spirits of this air, seeking some food for themselves in the division of carnal men. But that Abraham sat down with them, signifies that even amid these divisions of the carnal, true believers shall persevere to the end. And that about the going down of the sun great fear fell upon Abraham and a horror of great darkness, signifies that about the end of this world believers shall be in great perturbation and tribulation, of which the Lord said in the gospel, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning."[278]
But what is said to Abraham, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to servitude, and shall afflict them 400 years," is most clearly a prophecy about the people of Israel which was to be in servitude in Egypt. Not that this people was to be in that servitude under the oppressive Egyptians for 400 years, but it is foretold that this should take place in the course of those 400 years. For as it is written of Terah the father of Abraham, "And the days of Terah in Haran were 205 years,"[279] not because they were all spent there, but because they were completed there, so it is said here also, "And they shall reduce them to servitude, and shall afflict them 400 years," for this reason, because that number was completed, not because it was all spent in that affliction. The years are said to be 400 in round numbers, although they were a little more,whether you reckon from this time, when these things were promised to Abraham, or from the birth of Isaac, as the seed of Abraham, of which these things are predicted. For, as we have already said above, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham, when the first promise was made to him, down to the exodus of Israel from Egypt, there are reckoned 430 years, which the apostle thus mentions: "And this I say, that the covenant confirmed by God, the law, which was made 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect."[Pg 139][280] So then these 430 years might be called 400, because they are not much more, especially since part even of that number had already gone by when these things were shown and said to Abraham in vision, or when Isaac was born in his father's 100th year, twenty-five years after the first promise, when of these 430 years there now remained 405, which God was pleased to call 400. No one will doubt that the other things which follow in the prophetic words of God pertain to the people of Israel.
When it is added, "And when the sun was now setting there was a flame, and lo, a smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, which passed through between those pieces," this signifies that at the end of the world the carnal shall be judged by fire. For just as the affliction of the city of God, such as never was before, which is expected to take place under Antichrist, was signified by Abraham's horror of great darkness about the going down of the sun, that is, when the end of the world draws nigh,so at the going down of the sun, that is, at the very end of the world, there is signified by that fire the day of judgment, which separates the carnal who are to be saved by fire from those who are to be condemned in the fire. And then the covenant made with Abraham particularly sets forth the land of Canaan, and names eleven tribes in it from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates. It is not then from the great river of Egypt, that is, the Nile, but from a small one which separates Egypt from Palestine, where the city of Rhinocorura is.
25. Of Sarah's handmaid, Hagar, whom she herself wished to be Abraham's concubine.
And here follow the times of Abraham's sons, the one by Hagar the bond maid, the other by Sarah the free woman, about whom we have already spoken in the previous book. As regards this transaction, Abraham is in no way to be branded as guilty concerning this concubine, for he used her for the begetting of progeny, not for the gratification of lust; and not to insult, but rather to obey his wife, who supposed it would be a solace of her barrenness if she could make use of the fruitful womb of her handmaid to supply the defect of her own nature, and by that law of which[Pg 140] the apostle says, "Likewise also the husb and hath not power of his own body, but the wife,"[281] could, as a wife, make use of him for childbearing by another, when she could not do so in her own person. Here there is no wanton lust, no filthy lewdness. The handmaid is delivered to the husb and by the wife for the sake of progeny, and is received by the husb and for the sake of progeny, each seeking, not guilty excess, but natural fruit. And when the pregnant bond woman despised her barren mistress, and Sarah, with womanly jealousy, rather laid the blame of this on her husband, even then Abraham showed that he was not a slavish lover, but a free begetter of children, and that in using Hagar he had guarded the chastity of Sarah his wife, and had gratified her will and not his own,had received her without seeking, had gone in to her without being attached, had impregnated without loving her,for he says, "Behold thy maid is in thy hands: do to her as it pleaseth thee;"[282] a man able to use women as a man should,his wife temperately, his handmaid compliantly, neither intemperately!
26. Of God's attestation to Abraham, by which He assures him, when now old, of a son by the barren Sarah, and appoints him the father of the nations, and seals his faith in the promise by the sacrament of circumcision.
After these things Ishmael was born of Hagar; and Abraham might think that in him was fulfilled what God had promised him, saying, when he wished to adopt his home-born servant, "This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth of thee, he shall be thine heir."[283] Therefore, lest he should think that what was promised was fulfilled in the handmaid's son, "when Abram was ninety years old and nine, God appeared to him, and said unto him, I am God; be well-pleasing in my sight, and be without complaint, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will fill thee exceedingly."[284]
Here there are more distinct promises about the calling of the nations in Isaac, that is, in the son of the promise, by which grace is signified, and not nature; for the son is promised from an old man and a barren old woman. For[Pg 141] although God effects even the natural course of procreation, yet where the agency of God is manifest, through the decay or failure of nature, grace is more plainly discerned. And because this was to be brought about, not by generation, but by regeneration, circumcision was enjoined now, when a son was promised of Sarah. And by ordering all, not only sons, but also home-born and purchased servants to be circumcised, he testifies that this grace pertains to all. For what else does circumcision signify than a nature renewed on the putting off of the old? And what else does the eighth day mean than Christ, who rose again when the week was completed, that is, after the Sabbath? The very names of the parents are changed: all things proclaim newness, and the new covenant is shadowed forth in the old. For what does the term old covenant imply but the concealing of the new? And what does the term new covenant imply but the revealing of the old? The laughter of Abraham is the exultation of one who rejoices, not the scornful laughter of one who mistrusts. And those words of his in his heart, "Shall a son be born to me that am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" are not the words of doubt, but of wonder. And when it is said, "And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land in which thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession," if it troubles any one whether this is to be held as fulfilled, or whether its fulfilment may still be looked for, since no kind of earthly possession can be everlasting for any nation whatever, let him know that the word translated everlasting by our writers is what the Greeks term , which is derived from , the Greek for sculum, an age. But the Latins have not ventured to translate this by secular, lest they should change the meaning into something widely different. For many things are called secular which so happen in this world as to pass away even in a short time; but what is termed either has no end, or lasts to the very end of this world.
27. Of the male, who was to lose his soul if he was not circumcised on the eighth day, because he had broken God's covenant.
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28. Of the change of name in Abraham and Sarah, who received the gift of fecundity when they were incapable of regeneration owing to the barrenness of one, and the old age of both.
Now when a promise so great and clear was made to Abraham, in which it was so plainly said to him, "I have made thee a father of many nations, and I will increase thee exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall go forth of thee. And I will give thee a son of Sarah; and I will bless him, and he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall be of him,"[291]a promise which we now see fulfilled in Christ,from that time forward this couple are not called in Scripture, as formerly, Abram and Sarai, but Abraham and Sarah, as we have called them from the first, for every one does so now. The reason why the name of Abraham was changed is given: "For," He says, "I have made thee a father of many nations." This, then, is to be understood to be the meaning of Abraham; but Abram, as he was formerly called, means "exalted father." The reason of the change of Sarah's name is not given; but as those say who have written interpretations of the Hebrew names contained in these books, Sarah means "my princess," and Sarai "strength." Whence it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength[Pg 144] to conceive seed."[292] For both were old, as the Scripture testifies; but she was also barren, and had ceased to menstruate, so that she could no longer bear children even if she had not been barren. Further, if a woman is advanced in years, yet still retains the custom of women, she can bear children to a young man, but not to an old man, although that same old man can beget, but only of a young woman; as after Sarah's death Abraham could of Keturah, because he met with her in her lively age. This, then, is what the apostle mentions as wonderful, saying, besides, that Abraham's body was now dead;[293] because at that age he was no longer able to beget children of any woman who retained now only a small part of her natural vigour. Of course we must understand that his body was dead only to some purposes, not to all; for if it was so to all, it would no longer be the aged body of a living man, but the corpse of a dead one. Although that question, how Abraham begot children of Keturah, is usually solved in this way, that the gift of begetting which he received from the Lord, remained even after the death of his wife, yet I think that solution of the question which I have followed is preferable, because, although in our days an old man of a hundred years can beget children of no woman, it was not so then, when men still lived so long that a hundred years did not yet bring on them the decrepitude of old age.
29. Of the three men or angels, in whom the Lord is related to have appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre.
God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mamre in three men, who it is not to be doubted were angels, although some think that one of them was Christ, and assert that He was visible before He put on flesh. Now it belongs to the divine power, and invisible, incorporeal, and incommutable nature, without changing itself at all, to appear even to mortal men, not by what it is, but by what is subject to it. And what is not subject to it? Yet if they try to establish that one of these three was Christ by the fact that, although he saw three, he addressed the Lord in the singular, as it is written, "And, lo, three men stood by him: and, when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and worshipped[Pg 145] toward the ground, and said, Lord, if I have found favour before thee,"[294] etc.; why do they not advert to this also, that when two of them came to destroy the Sodomites, while Abraham still spoke to one, calling him Lord, and interceding that he would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked in Sodom, Lot received these two in such a way that he too in his conversation with them addressed the Lord in the singular? For after saying to them in the plural, "Behold, my lords, turn aside into your servant's house,"[295] etc., yet it is afterwards said, "And the angels laid hold upon his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was merciful unto him. And it came to pass, whenever they had led him forth abroad, that they said, Save thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all this region: save thyself in the mountain, lest thou be caught. And Lot said unto them, I pray thee, Lord, since thy servant hath found grace in thy sight,"[296] etc. And then after these words the Lord also answered him in the singular, although He was in two angels, saying, "See, I have accepted thy face,"[297] etc. This makes it much more credible that both Abraham in the three men and Lot in the two recognised the Lord, addressing Him in the singular number, even when they were addressing men; for they received them as they did for no other reason than that they might minister human refection to them as men who needed it. Yet there was about them something so excellent, that those who showed them hospitality as men could not doubt that God was in them as He was wont to be in the prophets, and therefore sometimes addressed them in the plural, and sometimes God in them in the singular. But that they were angels the Scripture testifies, not only in this book of Genesis, in which these transactions are related, but also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where in praising hospitality it is said, "For thereby some have entertained angels unawares."[298] By these three men, then, when a son Isaac was again promised to Abraham by Sarah, such a divine oracle was also given that it was said, "Abraham shall become a great and numerous nation, and all[Pg 146] the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him."[299] And here these two things are promised with the utmost brevity and fulness,the nation of Israel according to the flesh, and all nations according to faith.
30. Of Lot's deliverance from Sodom, and its consumption by fire from heaven; and of Abimelech, whose lust could not harm Sarah's chastity.
After this promise Lot was delivered out of Sodom, and a fiery rain from heaven turned into ashes that whole region of the impious city, where custom had made sodomy as prevalent as laws have elsewhere made other kinds of wickedness. But this punishment of theirs was a specimen of the divine judgment to come. For what is meant by the angels forbidding those who were delivered to look back, but that we are not to look back in heart to the old life which, being regenerated through grace, we have put off, if we think to escape the last judgment? Lot's wife, indeed, when she looked back, remained, and, being turned into salt, furnished to believing men a condiment by which to savour somewhat the warning to be drawn from that example. Then Abraham did again at Gerar, with Abimelech the king of that city, what he had done in Egypt about his wife, and received her back untouched in the same way. On this occasion, when the king rebuked Abraham for not saying she was his wife, and calling her his sister, he explained what he had been afraid of, and added this further, "And yet indeed she is my sister by the father's side, but not by the mother's;"[300] for she was Abraham's sister by his own father, and so near of kin. But her beauty was so great, that even at that advanced age she could be fallen in love with.
31. Of Isaac, who was born according to the promise, whose name was given on account of the laughter of both parents.
After these things a son was born to Abraham, according to God's promise, of Sarah, and was called Isaac, which means laughter. For his father had laughed when he was promised to him, in wondering delight, and his mother, when he was again promised by those three men, had laughed, doubting for joy; yet she was blamed by the angel because that laughter, although it was for joy, yet was not full of faith. Afterwards[Pg 147] she was confirmed in faith by the same angel. From this, then, the boy got his name. For when Isaac was born and called by that name, Sarah showed that her laughter was not that of scornful reproach, but that of joyful praise; for she said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that every one who hears will laugh with me."[301] Then in a little while the bond maid was cast out of the house with her son; and, according to the apostle, these two women signify the old and new covenants,Sarah representing that of the Jerusalem which is above, that is, the city of God.[302]
32. Of Abraham's obedience and faith, which were proved by the offering up of his son in sacrifice; and of Sarah's death.
Among other things, of which it would take too long time to mention the whole, Abraham was tempted about the offering up of his well-beloved son Isaac, to prove his pious obedience, and so make it known to the world, not to God. Now every temptation is not blameworthy; it may even be praiseworthy, because it furnishes probation. And, for the most part, the human mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its powers through temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-interrogation; when, if it has acknowledged the gift of God, it is pious, and is consolidated by stedfast grace and not puffed up by vain boasting. Of course Abraham could never believe that God delighted in human sacrifices; yet when the divine commandment thundered, it was to be obeyed, not disputed. Yet Abraham is worthy of praise, because he all along believed that his son, on being offered up, would rise again; for God had said to him, when he was unwilling to fulfil his wife's pleasure by casting out the bond maid and her son, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." No doubt He then goes on to say, "And as for the son of this bond woman, I will make him a great nation, because he is thy seed."[303] How then is it said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," when God calls Ishmael also his seed? The apostle, in explaining this, says, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but[Pg 148] the children of the promise are counted for the seed."[304] In order, then, that the children of the promise may be the seed of Abraham, they are called in Isaac, that is, are gathered together in Christ by the call of grace. Therefore the father, holding fast from the first the promise which behoved to be fulfilled through this son whom God had ordered him to slay, did not doubt that he whom he once thought it hopeless he should ever receive would be restored to him when he had offered him up. It is in this way the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews is also to be understood and explained. "By faith," he says, "Abraham overcame, when tempted about Isaac: and he who had received the promise offered up his only son, to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: thinking that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;" therefore he has added, "from whence also he received him in a similitude."[305] In whose similitude but His of whom the apostle says, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all?"[306] And on this account Isaac also himself carried to the place of sacrifice the wood on which he was to be offered up, just as the Lord Himself carried His own cross. Finally, since Isaac was not to be slain, after his father was forbidden to smite him, who was that ram by the offering of which that sacrifice was completed with typical blood? For when Abraham saw him, he was caught by the horns in a thicket. What, then, did he represent but Jesus, who, before He was offered up, was crowned with thorns by the Jews?
But let us rather hear the divine words spoken through the angel. For the Scripture says, "And Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife, that he might slay his son. And the Angel of the Lord called unto him from heaven, and said, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy beloved son for my sake."[307] It is said, "Now I know," that is, Now I have made to be known; for God was not previously ignorant of this. Then, having offered up that ram[Pg 149] instead of Isaac his son, "Abraham," as we read, "called the name of that place The Lord seeth: as they say this day, In the mount the Lord hath appeared."[308] As it is said, "Now I know," for Now I have made to be known, so here, "The Lord sees," for The Lord hath appeared, that is, made Himself to be seen. "And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham from heaven the second time, saying, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy beloved son for my sake; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess by inheritance the cities of the adversaries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."[309] In this manner is that promise concerning the calling of the nations in the seed of Abraham confirmed even by the oath of God, after that burnt-offering which typified Christ. For He had often promised, but never sworn. And what is the oath of God, the true and faithful, but a confirmation of the promise, and a certain reproof to the unbelieving?
After these things Sarah died, in the 127th year of her life, and the 137th of her husband; for he was ten years older than she, as he himself says, when a son is promised to him by her: "Shall a son be born to me that am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?"[310] Then Abraham bought a field, in which he buried his wife. And then, according to Stephen's account, he was settled in that land, entering then on actual possession of it,that is, after the death of his father, who is inferred to have died two years before.
33. Of Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, whom Isaac took to wife.
Isaac married Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, his father's brother, when he was forty years old, that is, in the 140th year of his father's life, three years after his mother's death. Now when a servant was sent to Mesopotamia by his father to fetch her, and when Abraham said to that servant, "Put thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth,[Pg 150] that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites,"[311] what else was pointed out by this, but that the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth, was to come in the flesh which was to be derived from that thigh? Are these small tokens of the foretold truth which we see fulfilled in Christ?
34. What is meant by Abraham's marrying Keturah after Sarah's death.
What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after Sarah's death? Far be it from us to suspect him of incontinence, especially when he had reached such an age and such sanctity of faith. Or was he still seeking to beget children, though he held fast, with most approved faith, the promise of God that his children should be multiplied out of Isaac as the stars of heaven and the dust of the earth? And yet, if Hagar and Ishmael, as the apostle teaches us, signified the carnal people of the old covenant, why may not Keturah and her sons also signify the carnal people who think they belong to the new covenant? For both are called both the wives and the concubines of Abraham; but Sarah is never called a concubine (but only a wife). For when Hagar is given to Abraham, it is written, "And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husb and Abram to be his wife."[312] And of Keturah, whom he took after Sarah's departure, we read, "Then again Abraham took a wife, whose name was Keturah."[313] Lo, both are called wives, yet both are found to have been concubines; for the Scripture afterward says, "And Abraham gave his whole estate unto Isaac his son. But unto the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac, (while he yet lived,) eastward, unto the east country."[314] Therefore the sons of the concubines, that is, the heretics and the carnal Jews, have some gifts, but do not attain the promised kingdom; "For they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called."[315] For I do not see why Keturah, who[Pg 151] was married after the wife's death, should be called a concubine, except on account of this mystery. But if any one is unwilling to put such meanings on these things, he need not calumniate Abraham. For what if even this was provided against the heretics who were to be the opponents of second marriages, so that it might be shown that it was no sin in the case of the father of many nations himself, when, after his wife's death, he married again? And Abraham died when he was 175 years old, so that he left his son Isaac seventy-five years old, having begotten him when 100 years old.
35. What was indicated by the divine answer about the twins still shut up in the womb of Rebecca their mother.
Let us now see how the times of the city of God run on from this point among Abraham's descendants. In the time from the first year of Isaac's life to the seventieth, when his sons were born, the only memorable thing is, that when he prayed God that his wife, who was barren, might bear, and the Lord granted what he sought, and she conceived, the twins leapt while still enclosed in her womb. And when she was troubled by this struggle, and inquired of the Lord, she received this answer: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."[316] The Apostle Paul would have us understand this as a great instance of grace;[317] for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, the younger is chosen without any good desert, and the elder is rejected, when beyond doubt, as regards original sin, both were alike, and as regards actual sin, neither had any. But the plan of the work on hand does not permit me to speak more fully of this matter now, and I have said much about it in other works. Only that saying, "The elder shall serve the younger," is understood by our writers, almost without exception, to mean that the elder people, the Jews, shall serve the younger people, the Christians. And truly, although this might seem to be fulfilled in the Idumean nation, which was born of the elder (who had two names, being called both Esau and Edom, whence the name Idumeans), because it was afterwards[Pg 152] to be overcome by the people which sprang from the younger, that is, by the Israelites, and was to become subject to them; yet it is more suitable to believe that, when it was said, "The one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger," that prophecy meant some greater thing; and what is that except what is evidently fulfilled in the Jews and Christians?
36. Of the oracle and blessing which Isaac received, just as his father did, being beloved for his sake.
Isaac also received such an oracle as his father had often received. Of this oracle it is thus written: "And there was a famine over the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; but dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. And abide in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all this land; and I will establish mine oath, which I sware unto Abraham thy father: and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all this land: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my commandments, my righteousness, and my laws."[318] This patriarch neither had another wife, nor any concubine, but was content with the twin-children begotten by one act of generation. He also was afraid, when he lived among strangers, of being brought into danger owing to the beauty of his wife, and did like his father in calling her his sister, and not telling that she was his wife; for she was his near blood-relation by the father's and mother's side. She also remained untouched by the strangers, when it was known she was his wife. Yet we ought not to prefer him to his father because he knew no woman besides his one wife. For beyond doubt the merits of his father's faith and obedience were greater, inasmuch as God says it is for his sake He does Isaac good: "In thy seed," He says, "shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts,[Pg 153] my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." And again in another oracle He says, "I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake."[319] So that we must understand how chastely Abraham acted, because imprudent men, who seek some support for their own wickedness in the Holy Scriptures, think he acted through lust. We may also learn this, not to compare men by single good things, but to consider everything in each; for it may happen that one man has something in his life and character in which he excels another, and it may be far more excellent than that in which the other excels him. And thus, according to sound and true judgment, while continence is preferable to marriage, yet a believing married man is better than a continent unbeliever; for the unbeliever is not only less praiseworthy, but is even highly detestable. We must conclude, then, that both are good; yet so as to hold that the married man who is most faithful and most obedient is certainly better than the continent man whose faith and obedience are less. But if equal in other things, who would hesitate to prefer the continent man to the married?
37. Of the things mystically prefigured in Esau and Jacob.
Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, grew up together. The primacy of the elder was transferred to the younger by a bargain and agreement between them, when the elder immoderately lusted after the lentiles the younger had prepared for food, and for that price sold his birthright to him, confirming it with an oath. We learn from this that a person is to be blamed, not for the kind of food he eats, but for immoderate greed. Isaac grew old, and old age deprived him of his eyesight. He wished to bless the elder son, and instead of the elder, who was hairy, unwittingly blessed the younger, who put himself under his father's hands, having covered himself with kid-skins, as if bearing the sins of others. Lest we should think this guile of Jacob's was fraudulent guile, instead of seeking in it the mystery of a great thing, the Scripture has predicted in the words just before, "Esau[Pg 154] was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a simple man, dwelling at home."[320] Some of our writers have interpreted this, "without guile." But whether the Greek means "without guile," or "simple," or rather "without feigning," in the receiving of that blessing what is the guile of the man without guile? What is the guile of the simple, what the fiction of the man who does not lie, but a profound mystery of the truth? But what is the blessing itself? "See," he says, "the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord hath blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fruitfulness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: let nations serve thee, and princes adore thee: and be lord of thy brethren, and let thy father's sons adore thee: cursed be he that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee."[321] The blessing of Jacob is therefore a proclamation of Christ to all nations. It is this which has come to pass, and is now being fulfilled. Isaac is the law and the prophecy: even by the mouth of the Jews Christ is blessed by prophecy as by one who knows not, because it is itself not understood. The world like a field is filled with the odour of Christ's name: His is the blessing of the dew of heaven, that is, of the showers of divine words; and of the fruitfulness of the earth, that is, of the gathering together of the peoples: His is the plenty of corn and wine, that is, the multitude that gathers bread and wine in the sacrament of His body and blood. Him the nations serve, Him princes adore. He is the Lord of His brethren, because His people rules over the Jews. Him His Father's sons adore, that is, the sons of Abraham according to faith; for He Himself is the son of Abraham according to the flesh. He is cursed that curseth Him, and he that blesseth Him is blessed. Christ, I say, who is ours is blessed, that is, truly spoken of out of the mouths of the Jews, when, although erring, they yet sing the law and the prophets, and think they are blessing another for whom they erringly hope. So, when the elder son claims the promised blessing, Isaac is greatly afraid, and wonders when he knows that he has blessed one instead of the other, and demands who he is; yet he does not complain that[Pg 155] he has been deceived, yea, when the great mystery is revealed to him, in his secret heart he at once eschews anger, and confirms the blessing. "Who then," he says, "hath hunted me venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him, and he shall be blessed?"[322] Who would not rather have expected the curse of an angry man here, if these things had been done in an earthly manner, and not by inspiration from above? O things done, yet done prophetically; on the earth, yet celestially; by men, yet divinely! If everything that is fertile of so great mysteries should be examined carefully, many volumes would be filled; but the moderate compass fixed for this work compels us to hasten to other things.
38. Of Jacob's mission to Mesopotamia to get a wife, and of the vision which he saw in a dream by the way, and of his getting four women when he sought one wife.
Jacob was sent by his parents to Mesopotamia that he might take a wife there. These were his father's words on sending him: "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites. Arise, fly to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. And my God bless thee, and increase thee, and multiply thee; and thou shalt be an assembly of peoples; and give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father, and to thy seed after thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest, which God gave unto Abraham."[323] Now we understand here that the seed of Jacob is separated from Isaac's other seed which came through Esau. For when it is said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called,"[324] by this seed is meant solely the city of God; so that from it is separated Abraham's other seed, which was in the son of the bond woman, and which was to be in the sons of Keturah. But until now it had been uncertain regarding Isaac's twin-sons whether that blessing belonged to both or only to one of them; and if to one, which of them it was. This is now declared when Jacob is prophetically blessed by his father, and it is said to him,[Pg 156] "And thou shalt be an assembly of peoples, and God give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father."
When Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a dream an oracle, of which it is thus written: "And Jacob went out from the well of the oath,[325] and went to Haran. And he came to a place, and slept there, for the sun was set; and he took of the stones of the place, and put them at his head, and slept in that place, and dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and the angels of God ascended and descended by it. And the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; fear not: the land whereon thou sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and it shall be spread abroad to the sea, and to Africa, and to the north, and to the east: and all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. And, behold, I am with thee, to keep thee in all thy way wherever thou goest, and I will bring thee back into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done all which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose, and took the stone that he had put under his head there, and set it up for a memorial, and poured oil upon the top of it. And Jacob called the name of that place the house of God."[326] This is prophetic. For Jacob did not pour oil on the stone in an idolatrous way, as if making it a god; neither did he adore that stone, or sacrifice to it. But since the name of Christ comes from the chrism or anointing, something pertaining to the great mystery was certainly represented in this. And the Saviour Himself is understood to bring this latter to remembrance in the gospel, when He says of Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"[327] because Israel who saw this vision is no other than Jacob. And in the same place He says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye[Pg 157] shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."
Jacob went on to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thence. And the divine Scripture points out how, without unlawfully desiring any of them, he came to have four women, of whom he begat twelve sons and one daughter; for he had come to take only one. But when one was falsely given him in place of the other, he did not send her away after unwittingly using her in the night, lest he should seem to have put her to shame; but as at that time, in order to multiply posterity, no law forbade a plurality of wives, he took her also to whom alone he had promised marriage. As she was barren, she gave her handmaid to her husb and that she might have children by her; and her elder sister did the same thing in imitation of her, although she had borne, because she desired to multiply progeny. We do not read that Jacob sought any but one, or that he used many, except for the purpose of begetting offspring, saving conjugal rights; and he would not have done this, had not his wives, who had legitimate power over their own husband's body, urged him to do it. So he begat twelve sons and one daughter by four women. Then he entered into Egypt by his son Joseph, who was sold by his brethren for envy, and carried there, and who was there exalted.
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If, on account of the Christian people in whom the city of God sojourns in the earth, we look for the flesh of Christ in the seed of Abraham, setting aside the sons of the concubines, we have Isaac; if in the seed of Isaac, setting aside Esau, who is also Edom, we have Jacob, who also is Israel; if in the seed of Israel himself, setting aside the rest, we have Judah, because Christ sprang of the tribe of Judah. Let us hear, then, how Israel, when dying in Egypt, in blessing his sons, prophetically blessed Judah. He says: "Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee: thy hands shall be on the back of[Pg 160] thine enemies; thy father's children shall adore thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the sprouting, my son, thou art gone up: lying down, thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall awake him? A prince shall not be lacking out of Judah, and a leader from his thighs, until the things come that are laid up for him; and He shall be the expectation of the nations. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's foal to the choice vine; he shall wash his robe in wine, and his clothes in the blood of the grape: his eyes are red with wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk."[334] I have expounded these words in disputing against Faustus the Manichan; and I think it is enough to make the truth of this prophecy shine, to remark that the death of Christ is predicted by the word about his lying down, and not the necessity, but the voluntary character of His death, in the title of lion. That power He Himself proclaims in the gospel, saying, "I have the power of laying down my life, and I have the power of taking it again. No man taketh it from me; but I lay it down of myself, and take it again."[335] So the lion roared, so He fulfilled what He said. For to this power what is added about the resurrection refers, "Who shall awake him?" This means that no man but Himself has raised Him, who also said of His own body, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."[336] And the very nature of His death, that is, the height of the cross, is understood by the single word, "Thou art gone up." The evangelist explains what is added, "Lying down, thou hast slept," when he says, "He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost."[337] Or at least His burial is to be understood, in which He lay down sleeping, and whence no man raised Him, as the prophets did some, and as He Himself did others; but He Himself rose up as if from sleep. As for His robe which He washes in wine, that is, cleanses from sin in His own blood, of which blood those who are baptized know the mystery, so that he adds, "And his clothes in the blood of the grape," what is it but the Church? "And his eyes are red with wine," [these are] His spiritual people drunken with His cup, of which the psalm sings, "And thy cup that makes drunken, how excellent it is!"[Pg 161] "And his teeth are whiter than milk,"[338]that is, the nutritive words which, according to the apostle, the babes drink, being as yet unfit for solid food.[339] And it is He in whom the promises of Judah were laid up, so that until they come, princes, that is, the kings of Israel, shall never be lacking out of Judah. "And He is the expectation of the nations." This is too plain to need exposition.
42. Of the sons of Joseph, whom Jacob blessed, prophetically changing his hands.
Now, as Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, furnished a type of the two people, the Jews and the Christians (although as pertains to carnal descent it was not the Jews but the Idumeans who came of the seed of Esau, nor the Christian nations but rather the Jews who came of Jacob's; for the type holds only as regards the saying, "The elder shall serve the younger"[340]), so the same thing happened in Joseph's two sons; for the elder was a type of the Jews, and the younger of the Christians. For when Jacob was blessing them, and laid his right hand on the younger, who was at his left, and his left hand on the elder, who was at his right, this seemed wrong to their father, and he admonished his father by trying to correct his mistake and show him which was the elder. But he would not change his hands, but said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations."[341] And these two promises show the same thing. For that one is to become "a people;" this one "a multitude of nations." And what can be more evident than that these two promises comprehend the people of Israel, and the whole world of Abraham's seed, the one according to the flesh, the other according to faith?
43. Of the times of Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, of the judges, and thereafter of the kings, of whom Saul was the first, but David is to be regarded as the chief, both by the oath and by merit.
Jacob being dead, and Joseph also, during the remaining 144 years until they went out of the land of Egypt that nation increased to an incredible degree, even although wasted[Pg 162] by so great persecutions, that at one time the male children were murdered at their birth, because the wondering Egyptians were terrified at the too great increase of that people. Then Moses, being stealthily kept from the murderers of the infants, was brought to the royal house, God preparing to do great things by him, and was nursed and adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh (that was the name of all the kings of Egypt), and became so great a man that heyea, rather God, who had promised this to Abraham, by himdrew that nation, so wonderfully multiplied, out of the yoke of hardest and most grievous servitude it had borne there. At first, indeed, he fled thence (we are told he fled into the land of Midian), because, in defending an Israelite, he had slain an Egyptian, and was afraid. Afterward, being divinely commissioned in the power of the Spirit of God, he overcame the magi of Pharaoh who resisted him. Then, when the Egyptians would not let God's people go, ten memorable plagues were brought by Him upon them,the water turned into blood, the frogs and lice, the flies, the death of the cattle, the boils, the hail, the locusts, the darkness, the death of the first-born. At last the Egyptians were destroyed in the Red Sea while pursuing the Israelites, whom they had let go when at length they were broken by so many great plagues. The divided sea made a way for the Israelites who were departing, but, returning on itself, it overwhelmed their pursuers with its waves. Then for forty years the people of God went through the desert, under the leadership of Moses, when the tabernacle of testimony was dedicated, in which God was worshipped by sacrifices prophetic of things to come, and that was after the law had been very terribly given in the mount, for its divinity was most plainly attested by wonderful signs and voices. This took place soon after the exodus from Egypt, when the people had entered the desert, on the fiftieth day after the passover was celebrated by the offering up of a lamb, which is so completely a type of Christ, foretelling that through His sacrificial passion He should go from this world to the Father (for pascha in the Hebrew tongue means transit), that when the new covenant was revealed, after Christ our passover was offered up, the Holy Spirit came from heaven on the fiftieth day; and He is called[Pg 163] in the gospel the Finger of God, because He recalls to our remembrance the things done before by way of types, and because the tables of that law are said to have been written by the finger of God.
On the death of Moses, Joshua the son of Nun ruled the people, and led them into the land of promise, and divided it among them. By these two wonderful leaders wars were also carried on most prosperously and wonderfully, God calling to witness that they had got these victories not so much on account of the merit of the Hebrew people as on account of the sins of the nations they subdued. After these leaders there were judges, when the people were settled in the land of promise, so that, in the meantime, the first promise made to Abraham began to be fulfilled about the one nation, that is, the Hebrew, and about the land of Canaan; but not as yet the promise about all nations, and the whole wide world, for that was to be fulfilled, not by the observances of the old law, but by the advent of Christ in the flesh, and by the faith of the gospel. And it was to prefigure this that it was not Moses, who received the law for the people on Mount Sinai, that led the people into the land of promise, but Joshua, whose name also was changed at God's command, so that he was called Jesus. But in the times of the judges prosperity alternated with adversity in war, according as the sins of the people and the mercy of God were displayed.
We come next to the times of the kings. The first who reigned was Saul; and when he was rejected and laid low in battle, and his offspring rejected so that no kings should arise out of it, David succeeded to the kingdom, whose son Christ is chiefly called. He was made a kind of starting-point and beginning of the advanced youth of God's people, who had passed a kind of age of puberty from Abraham to this David. And it is not in vain that the evangelist Matthew records the generations in such a way as to sum up this first period from Abraham to David in fourteen generations. For from the age of puberty man begins to be capable of generation; therefore he starts the list of generations from Abraham, who also was made the father of many nations when he got his name changed. So that previously this family of God's people was[Pg 164] in its childhood, from Noah to Abraham; and for that reason the first language was then learned, that is, the Hebrew. For man begins to speak in childhood, the age succeeding infancy, which is so termed because then he cannot speak.[342] And that first age is quite drowned in oblivion, just as the first age of the human race was blotted out by the flood; for who is there that can remember his infancy? Wherefore in this progress of the city of God, as the previous book contained that first age, so this one ought to contain the second and third ages, in which third age, as was shown by the heifer of three years old, the she-goat of three years old, and the ram of three years old, the yoke of the law was imposed, and there appeared abundance of sins, and the beginning of the earthly kingdom arose, in which there were not lacking spiritual men, of whom the turtle-dove and pigeon represented the mystery.
[Pg 165]

BOOK XV. - The progress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred history, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
There was indeed on earth, so long as it was needed, a symbol and foreshadowing image of this city, which served the purpose of reminding men that such a city was to be, rather than of making it present; and this image was itself called the holy city, as a symbol of the future city, though not itself the reality. Of this city which served as an image, and of that free city it typified, Paul writes to the Galatians in these terms: "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory:[133] for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her son: for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. And we, brethren, are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free."[Pg 52][134] This interpretation of the passage, handed down to us with apostolic authority, shows how we ought to understand the Scriptures of the two covenants the old and the new. One portion of the earthly city became an image of the heavenly city, not having a significance of its own, but signifying another city, and therefore serving, or "being in bondage." For it was founded not for its own sake, but to prefigure another city; and this shadow of a city was also itself foreshadowed by another preceding figure. For Sarah's handmaid Agar, and her son, were an image of this image. And as the shadows were to pass away when the full light came, Sarah, the free woman, who prefigured the free city (which again was also prefigured in another way by that shadow of a city Jerusalem), therefore said, "Cast out the bond woman and her son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac," or, as the apostle says, "with the son of the free woman." In the earthly city, then, we find two thingsits own obvious presence, and its symbolic presentation of the heavenly city. Now citizens are begotten to the earthly city by nature vitiated by sin, but to the heavenly city by grace freeing nature from sin; whence the former are called "vessels of wrath," the latter "vessels of mercy."[135] And this was typified in the two sons of Abraham,Ishmael, the son of Agar the handmaid, being born according to the flesh, while Isaac was born of the free woman Sarah, according to the promise. Both, indeed, were of Abraham's seed; but the one was begotten by natural law, the other was given by gracious promise. In the one birth, human action is revealed; in the other, a divine kindness comes to light.
3. That Sarah's barrenness was made productive by God's grace.
Sarah, in fact, was barren; and, despairing of offspring, and being resolved that she would have at least through her handmaid that blessing she saw she could not in her own person procure, she gave her handmaid to her husband, to whom she herself had been unable to bear children. From him she required this conjugal duty, exercising her own right in another's womb. And thus Ishmael was born according to the common[Pg 53] law of human generation, by sexual intercourse. Therefore it is said that he was born "according to the flesh,"not because such births are not the gifts of God, nor His handiwork, whose creative wisdom "reaches," as it is written, "from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth she order all things,"[136] but because, in a case in which the gift of God, which was not due to men and was the gratuitous largess of grace, was to be conspicuous, it was requisite that a son be given in a way which no effort of nature could compass. Nature denies children to persons of the age which Abraham and Sarah had now reached; besides that, in Sarah's case, she was barren even in her prime. This nature, so constituted that offspring could not be looked for, symbolized the nature of the human race vitiated by sin and by just consequence condemned, which deserves no future felicity. Fitly, therefore, does Isaac, the child of promise, typify the children of grace, the citizens of the free city, who dwell together in everlasting peace, in which self-love and self-will have no place, but a ministering love that rejoices in the common joy of all, of many hearts makes one, that is to say, secures a perfect concord.
4. Of the conflict and peace of the earthly city.
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At present it is the history which I aim at defending, that Scripture may not be reckoned incredible when it relates that one man built a city at a time in which there seem to have been but four men upon earth, or rather indeed but three, after one brother slew the other,to wit, the first man the father of all, and Cain himself, and his son Enoch, by whose name the city was itself called. But they who are moved by this consideration forget to take into account that the writer of the sacred history does not necessarily mention all the men who might be alive at that time, but those only whom the scope of his work required him to name. The design of that writer (who in this matter was the instrument of the Holy Ghost) was to descend to Abraham through the successions of ascertained generations propagated from one man, and then to pass from Abraham's seed to the people of God, in whom, separated as they were from other nations, was prefigured and predicted all that relates to the city whose reign is eternal, and to its king and founder Christ, which things were foreseen in the Spirit as destined to come; yet neither is this object so effected as that nothing is said of the other society of men which we call the earthly city, but mention is made of it so far as seemed needful to enhance the glory of the heavenly city by contrast to its opposite. Accordingly, when the divine Scripture, in mentioning the[Pg 62] number of years which those men lived, concludes its account of each man of whom it speaks, with the words, "And he begat sons and daughters, and all his days were so and so, and he died," are we to understand that, because it does not name those sons and daughters, therefore, during that long term of years over which one lifetime extended in those early days, there might not have been born very many men, by whose united numbers not one but several cities might have been built? But it suited the purpose of God, by whose inspiration these histories were composed, to arrange and distinguish from the first these two societies in their several generations,that on the one side the generations of men, that is to say, of those who live according to man, and on the other side the generations of the sons of God, that is to say, of men living according to God, might be traced down together and yet apart from one another as far as the deluge, at which point their dissociation and association are exhibited: their dissociation, inasmuch as the generations of both lines are recorded in separate tables, the one line descending from the fratricide Cain, the other from Seth, who had been born to Adam instead of him whom his brother slew; their association, inasmuch as the good so deteriorated that the whole race became of such a character that it was swept away by the deluge, with the exception of one just man, whose name was Noah, and his wife and three sons and three daughters-in-law, which eight persons were alone deemed worthy to escape from that desolating visitation which destroyed all men.
Therefore, although it is written, "And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch, and he builded a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch,"[158] it does not follow that we are to believe this to have been his first-born; for we cannot suppose that this is proved by the expression "he knew his wife," as if then for the first time he had had intercourse with her. For in the case of Adam, the father of all, this expression is used not only when Cain, who seems to have been his first-born, was conceived, but also afterwards the same Scripture says, "Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare a son, and[Pg 63] called his name Seth."[159] Whence it is obvious that Scripture employs this expression neither always when a birth is recorded nor then only when the birth of a first-born is mentioned. Neither is it necessary to suppose that Enoch was Cain's first-born because he named his city after him. For it is quite possible that though he had other sons, yet for some reason the father loved him more than the rest. Judah was not the first-born, though he gives his name to Juda and the Jews. But even though Enoch was the first-born of the city's founder, that is no reason for supposing that the father named the city after him as soon as he was born; for at that time he, being but a solitary man, could not have founded a civic community, which is nothing else than a multitude of men bound together by some associating tie. But when his family increased to such numbers that he had quite a population, then it became possible to him both to build a city, and give it, when founded, the name of his son. For so long was the life of those antediluvians, that he who lived the shortest time of those whose years are mentioned in Scripture attained to the age of 753 years.[160] And though no one attained the age of a thousand years, several exceeded the age of nine hundred. Who then can doubt that during the lifetime of one man the human race might be so multiplied that there would be a population to build and occupy not one but several cities? And this might very readily be conjectured from the fact that from one man, Abraham, in not much more than four hundred years, the numbers of the Hebrew race so increased, that in the exodus of that people from Egypt there are recorded to have been six hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms,[161] and this over and above the Idumans, who, though not numbered with Israel's descendants, were yet sprung from his brother, also a grandson of Abraham; and over and above the other nations which were of the same stock of Abraham, though not through Sarah,that is, his descendants by Hagar and Keturah, the Ishmaelites, Midianites, etc.
9. Of the long life and greater stature of the antediluvians.
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Let us now see how it can be plainly made out that in the enormously protracted lives of those men the years were not so short that ten of their years were equal to only one of ours, but were of as great length as our own, which are measured by the course of the sun. It is proved by this, that Scripture states that the flood occurred in the six hundredth year of Noah's life. But why in the same place is it also written, "The waters of the flood were upon the earth in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month,"[173] if that very brief year (of which it took ten to make one of ours) consisted of thirty-six days? For so scant a year, if the ancient usage dignified it with the name of year, either has not months, or its month must be three days, so that it may have twelve of them. How then was it here said, "In the six hundredth year, the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month," unless the months then were of the same length as the months now? For how else could it be said that the flood began on the twenty-seventh day of the second month? Then afterwards, at the end of the flood, it is thus written: "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the eleventh month: on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen."[174] But if the[Pg 74] months were such as we have, then so were the years. And certainly months of three days each could not have a twenty-seventh day. Or if every measure of time was diminished in proportion, and a thirtieth part of three days was then called a day, then that great deluge, which is recorded to have lasted forty days and forty nights, was really over in less than four of our days. Who can away with such foolishness and absurdity? Far be this error from us,an error which seeks to build up our faith in the divine Scriptures on false conjecture, only to demolish our faith at another point. It is plain that the day then was what it now is, a space of four-and-twenty hours, determined by the lapse of day and night; the month then equal to the month now, which is defined by the rise and completion of one moon; the year then equal to the year now, which is completed by twelve lunar months, with the addition of five days and a-fourth to adjust it with the course of the sun. It was a year of this length which was reckoned the six hundredth of Noah's life; and in the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, the flood began,a flood which, as is recorded, was caused by heavy rains continuing for forty days, which days had not only two hours and a little more, but four-and-twenty hours, completing a night and a day. And consequently those antediluvians lived more than 900 years, which were years as long as those which afterwards Abraham lived 175 of, and after him his son Isaac 180, and his son Jacob nearly 150, and some time after, Moses 120, and men now seventy or eighty, or not much longer, of which years it is said, "their strength is labour and sorrow."[175]
But that discrepancy of numbers which is found to exist between our own and the Hebrew text does not touch the longevity of the ancients; and if there is any diversity so great that both versions cannot be true, we must take our ideas of the real facts from that text out of which our own version has been translated. However, though any one who pleases has it in his power to correct this version, yet it is not unimportant to observe that no one has presumed to emend the Septuagint from the Hebrew text in the many[Pg 75] places where they seem to disagree. For this difference has not been reckoned a falsification; and for my own part I am persuaded it ought not to be reckoned so. But where the difference is not a mere copyist's error, and where the sense is agreeable to truth and illustrative of truth, we must believe that the divine Spirit prompted them to give a varying version, not in their function of translators, but in the liberty of prophesying. And therefore we find that the apostles justly sanction the Septuagint, by quoting it as well as the Hebrew when they adduce proofs from the Scriptures. But as I have promised to treat this subject more carefully, if God help me, in a more fitting place, I will now go on with the matter in hand. For there can be no doubt that, the lives of men being so long, the first-born of the first man could have built a city,a city, however, which was earthly, and not that which is called the city of God, to describe which we have taken in hand this great work.
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Some one, then, will say, Is it to be believed that a man who intended to beget children, and had no intention of continence, abstained from sexual intercourse a hundred years and more, or even, according to the Hebrew version, only a little less, say eighty, seventy, or sixty years; or, if he did not abstain, was unable to beget offspring? This question admits of two solutions. For either puberty was so much later as the whole life was longer, or, which seems to me more likely, it is not the first-born sons that are here mentioned, but those whose names were required to fill up the series until Noah was reached, from whom again we see that the succession is continued to Abraham, and after him down to that point of time until which it was needful to mark by pedigree the course of the most glorious city, which sojourns as a stranger in this world, and seeks the heavenly country. That which is undeniable is that Cain was the first who was born of man and woman. For had he not been the first who was added by birth to the two unborn persons, Adam could not have said what he is recorded to have said, "I have gotten a man by[Pg 76] the Lord."[176] He was followed by Abel, whom the elder brother slew, and who was the first to show, by a kind of foreshadowing of the sojourning city of God, what iniquitous persecutions that city would suffer at the hands of wicked and, as it were, earth-born men, who love their earthly origin, and delight in the earthly happiness of the earthly city. But how old Adam was when he begat these sons does not appear. After this the generations diverge, the one branch deriving from Cain, the other from him whom Adam begot in the room of Abel slain by his brother, and whom he called Seth, saying, as it is written, "For God hath raised me up another seed for Abel whom Cain slew."[177] These two series of generations accordingly, the one of Cain, the other of Seth, represent the two cities in their distinctive ranks, the one the heavenly city, which sojourns on earth, the other the earthly, which gapes after earthly joys, and grovels in them as if they were the only joys. But though eight generations, including Adam, are registered before the flood, no man of Cain's line has his age recorded at which the son who succeeded him was begotten. For the Spirit of God refused to mark the times before the flood in the generations of the earthly city, but preferred to do so in the heavenly line, as if it were more worthy of being remembered. Further, when Seth was born, the age of his father is mentioned; but already he had begotten other sons, and who will presume to say that Cain and Abel were the only ones previously begotten? For it does not follow that they alone had been begotten of Adam, because they alone were named in order to continue the series of generations which it was desirable to mention. For though the names of all the rest are buried in silence, yet it is said that Adam begot sons and daughters; and who that cares to be free from the charge of temerity will dare to say how many his offspring numbered? It was possible enough that Adam was divinely prompted to say, after Seth was born, "For God hath raised up to me another seed for Abel," because that son was to be capable of representing Abel's holiness, not because he was born first after him in point of time. Then because it is written, "And Seth lived 205 years," or, according to the Hebrew reading,[Pg 77] "105 years, and begat Enos,"[178] who but a rash man could affirm that this was his first-born? Will any man do so to excite our wonder, and cause us to inquire how for so many years he remained free from sexual intercourse, though without any purpose of continuing so, or how, if he did not abstain, he yet had no children? Will any man do so when it is written of him, "And he begat sons and daughters, and all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died?"[179] And similarly regarding those whose years are afterwards mentioned, it is not disguised that they begat sons and daughters.
Consequently it does not at all appear whether he who is named as the son was himself the first begotten. Nay, since it is incredible that those fathers were either so long in attaining puberty, or could not get wives, or could not impregnate them, it is also incredible that those sons were their first-born. But as the writer of the sacred history designed to descend by well-marked intervals through a series of generations to the birth and life of Noah, in whose time the flood occurred, he mentioned not those sons who were first begotten, but those by whom the succession was handed down.
Let me make this clearer by here inserting an example, in regard to which no one can have any doubt that what I am asserting is true. The evangelist Matthew, where he designs to commit to our memories the generation of the Lord's flesh by a series of parents, beginning from Abraham and intending to reach David, says, "Abraham begat Isaac;"[180] why did he not say Ishmael, whom he first begat? Then "Isaac begat Jacob;" why did he not say Esau, who was the first-born? Simply because these sons would not have helped him to reach David. Then follows, "And Jacob begat Judah and his brethren:" was Judah the first begotten? "Judah," he says, "begat Pharez and Zara;" yet neither were these twins the first-born of Judah, but before them he had begotten three other sons. And so in the order of the generations he retained those by whom he might reach David, so as to proceed onwards to the end he had in view. And from this we may understand that the antediluvians who are mentioned were not the first-born, but those through whom the order of[Pg 78] the succeeding generations might be carried on to the patriarch Noah. We need not, therefore, weary ourselves with discussing the needless and obscure question as to their lateness of reaching puberty.
16. Of marriage between blood-relations, in regard to which the present law could not bind the men of the earliest ages.
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The sexual intercourse of man and woman, then, is in the case of mortals a kind of seed-bed of the city; but while the earthly city needs for its population only generation, the heavenly needs also regeneration to rid it of the taint of generation. Whether before the deluge there was any bodily or visible sign of regeneration, such as was afterwards enjoined upon Abraham when he was circumcised, or what kind of sign it was, the sacred history does not inform us. But it does inform us that even these earliest of mankind sacrificed[Pg 81] to God, as appeared also in the case of the two first brothers; Noah, too, is said to have offered sacrifices to God when he had come forth from the ark after the deluge. And concerning this subject we have already said in the foregoing books that the devils arrogate to themselves divinity, and require sacrifice that they may be esteemed gods, and delight in these honours on no other account than this, because they know that true sacrifice is due to the true God.
17. Of the two fathers and leaders who sprang from one progenitor.
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Some one will say, If the writer of this history intended, in enumerating the generations from Adam through his son Seth, to descend through them to Noah, in whose time the[Pg 85] deluge occurred, and from him again to trace the connected generations down to Abraham, with whom Matthew begins the pedigree of Christ the eternal King of the city of God, what did he intend by enumerating the generations from Cain, and to what terminus did he mean to trace them? We reply, To the deluge, by which the whole stock of the earthly city was destroyed, but repaired by the sons of Noah. For the earthly city and community of men who live after the flesh will never fail until the end of this world, of which our Lord says, "The children of this world generate, and are generated."[193] But the city of God, which sojourns in this world, is conducted by regeneration to the world to come, of which the children neither generate nor are generated. In this world generation is common to both cities; though even now the city of God has many thousand citizens who abstain from the act of generation; yet the other city also has some citizens who imitate these, though erroneously. For to that city belong also those who have erred from the faith, and introduced divers heresies; for they live according to man, not according to God. And the Indian gymnosophists, who are said to philosophize in the solitudes of India in a state of nudity, are its citizens; and they abstain from marriage. For continence is not a good thing, except when it is practised in the faith of the highest good, that is, God. Yet no one is found to have practised it before the deluge; for indeed even Enoch himself, the seventh from Adam, who is said to have been translated without dying, begat sons and daughters before he was translated, and among these was Methuselah, by whom the succession of the recorded generations is maintained.
Why, then, is so small a number of Cain's generations registered, if it was proper to trace them to the deluge, and if there was no such delay of the date of puberty as to preclude the hope of offspring for a hundred or more years? For if the author of this book had not in view some one to whom he might rigidly trace the series of generations, as he designed in those which sprang from Seth's seed to descend to Noah, and thence to start again by a rigid order, what need was there of omitting the first-born sons for the sake of descending[Pg 86] to Lamech, in whose sons that line terminates,that is to say, in the eighth generation from Adam, or the seventh from Cain,as if from this point he had wished to pass on to another series, by which he might reach either the Israelitish people, among whom the earthly Jerusalem presented a prophetic figure of the heavenly city, or to Jesus Christ, "according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever,"[194] the Maker and Ruler of the heavenly city? What, I say, was the need of this, seeing that the whole of Cain's posterity were destroyed in the deluge? From this it is manifest that they are the first-born sons who are registered in this genealogy. Why, then, are there so few of them? Their numbers in the period before the deluge must have been greater, if the date of puberty bore no proportion to their longevity, and they had children before they were a hundred years old. For supposing they were on an average thirty years old when they began to beget children, then, as there are eight generations, including Adam and Lamech's children, 8 times 30 gives 240 years; did they then produce no more children in all the rest of the time before the deluge? With what intention, then, did he who wrote this record make no mention of subsequent generations? For from Adam to the deluge there are reckoned, according to our copies of Scripture, 2262 years,[195] and according to the Hebrew text, 1656 years. Supposing, then, the smaller number to be the true one, and subtracting from 1656 years 240, is it credible that during the remaining 1400 and odd years until the deluge the posterity of Cain begat no children?

BOOK XXII. - Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body, and the miracles of the early Church, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Wherefore, not to mention many other instances besides, as we now see in Christ the fulfilment of that which God promised to Abraham when He said, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed,"[966] so this also shall be fulfilled which He promised to the same race, when He said by the prophet, "They that are in their sepulchres shall rise again;"[967] and also, "There shall be a new heaven and a new earth: and the former shall not be mentioned, nor come into mind; but they shall find joy and rejoicing in it: for I will make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and my people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall[Pg 476] be no more heard in her."[968] And by another prophet He uttered the same prediction: "At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust" (or, as some interpret it, "in the mound") "of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."[969] And in another place by the same prophet: "The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and shall possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever."[970] And a little after he says, "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom."[971] Other prophecies referring to the same subject I have advanced in the twentieth book, and others still which I have not advanced are found written in the same Scriptures; and these predictions shall be fulfilled, as those also have been which unbelieving men supposed would be frustrate. For it is the same God who promised both, and predicted that both would come to pass,the God whom the pagan deities tremble before, as even Porphyry, the noblest of pagan philosophers, testifies.
4. Against the wise men of the world, who fancy that the earthly bodies of men cannot be transferred to a heavenly habitation.
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This Sabbath shall appear still more clearly if we count the ages as days, in accordance with the periods of time defined in Scripture, for that period will be found to be the seventh. The first age, as the first day, extends from Adam to the deluge; the second from the deluge to Abraham, equalling the first, not in length of time, but in the number of generations, there being ten in each. From Abraham to the advent of Christ there are, as the evangelist Matthew calculates, three periods, in each of which are fourteen generations,one period from Abraham to David, a second from David to the captivity, a third from the captivity to the birth of Christ in the flesh. There are thus five ages in all. The sixth is now passing, and cannot be measured by any number of generations, as it has been said, "It is not for you to know the times, which the Father hath put in His own power."[1058] After this period God shall rest as on the seventh day, when He shall give us (who shall be the seventh day) rest in Himself. But there is not now space to treat of these ages; suffice it to say that the seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close, not by an evening, but by the Lord's day, as an eighth and eternal day, consecrated by the resurrection of Christ, and prefiguring the eternal repose not only of the spirit, but also of the body. There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise.[Pg 545] This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?
I think I have now, by God's help, discharged my obligation in writing this large work. Let those who think I have said too little, or those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough join me in giving thanks to God. Amen.

BOOK XX. - Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
In another place the same Daniel says, "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as was not since there was born a nation upon earth until that time: and in that time all Thy people which shall be found written in the book shall be delivered. And many of them that sleep in the mound of earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and many of the just as the stars for ever."[795] This passage is very similar to the one we have quoted from the Gospel,[796] at least so far as regards the resurrection of dead bodies. For those who are there said to be "in the graves" are here spoken of as "sleeping in the mound of earth," or, as others translate, "in the dust of earth." There it is said, "They shall come forth;" so here, "They shall arise." There, "They that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection[Pg 395] of judgment;" here, "Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion." Neither is it to be supposed a difference, though in place of the expression in the Gospel, "All who are in their graves," the prophet does not say "all," but "many of them that sleep in the mound of earth." For many is sometimes used in Scripture for all. Thus it was said to Abraham, "I have set thee as the father of many nations," though in another place it was said to him, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed."[797] Of such a resurrection it is said a little afterwards to the prophet himself, "And come thou and rest: for there is yet a day till the completion of the consummation; and thou shalt rest, and rise in thy lot in the end of the days."[798]
24. Passages from the Psalms of David which predict the end of the world and the last judgment.

BS 1 - Introduction to the Idea of God, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Ill give you just a quick example. Theres an idea of sacrifice in the Old Testament, and its pretty barbaric. The story of Abraham and Isaac is a good example. Abraham was called on to actually sacrifice his own son, which doesnt really seem like something that a reasonable God would ask you to do. God, in the Old Testament, is frequently cruel, arbitrary, demanding, and paradoxical, which is one of the things that really gives the book life. It wasnt edited by a committee that was concerned with not offending anyone. Thats for sure.
So Jung believed that the dream was the birthplace of thought. Ive been extending that idea, because one of the things I wondered about deeplyyou have a dream, and then someone interprets it. You can argue about whether or not an interpretation is valid, just like you can argue about whether your interpretation of a novel or a movie is valid. Its a very difficult thing to determine with any degree of accuracywhich accounts, in part, for the postmodern critique. But my observation has been that people will present a dream and, sometimes, we can extract out real, useful information from it that the person didnt appear to know, and they get a flash of insight. Thats a marker that we stumbled on something that unites part of that person that wasnt united before. It pulls things together, which is often what a good story will do, or, sometimes, a good theory. Things snap together for you, and a little light goes on. Thats one of the markers that Ive used for accuracy and dreams, in my own family.
--
Theres the Elohist source. It contains the stories of Abraham and Isaac. Its concerned with a heavenly hierarchy that includes angels. It talks about the departure from Egypt, and it presents the covenant code, which is this idea that society is predicatedthis was Israeli societyon a covenant with God thats laid out in a sequence of rules, some of which are the Ten Commandment, but many of which are much more extensive than that.
The final one is the Deuteronomist Code. It contains the bulk of the law and whats called the Deuteronomic History. Its independent of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. And so we know that, at least.

COSA - BOOK III, #The Confessions of Saint Augustine, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
thing in one place, and another in another; according to which Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, were righteous, and all

COSA - BOOK IX, #The Confessions of Saint Augustine, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
from the flesh; and now he lives in Abraham's bosom. Whatever that be,
which is signified by that bosom, there lives my Nebridius, my sweet

Epistle to the Romans, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
The Faith of Abraham
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account." 9 Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also?
For we say, "Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness." 10 How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; 11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.
Inheritance through Faith
13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; 15 for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. 16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, "A Father of many nations have I made you.") in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be." 19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore it was credited to him as righteousness. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
--
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "Through Isaac your descendants will be named." 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. 9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." 10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger." 13 Just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
God's Free Choice
--
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life." 4 But what is the divine response to him? "I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
The Remnant of Israel

Liber 111 - The Book of Wisdom - LIBER ALEPH VEL CXI, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
True State, I speak of ParAbrahaman and of Nibbana, thus in any Reality
of Thought rather denying Him or It than destroying Illusion. But in

Liber 46 - The Key of the Mysteries, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
ENOCH, Abraham, HERMES TRISMEGISTES
AND SOLOMON
--
patriarch Abraham. This book is called the Sepher Yetzirah; with the
aid of the Sepher Yetzirah one can penetrate the {xiii} hidden sense of
--
Bible opposed Abraham, the man of duty, who goes voluntarily into exile
in order to seek liberty and strife in a strange country, which he
--
history of Abraham is, then, a symbol in the ancient manner, and
contains a lofty revelation of the destinies of the human soul. Taken
--
Your fathers are not here, they are risen: for the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, and of Jacob, is not the God of the dead!
--
Abraham, of Tobias, and of the angels who visited them.
And in memory of Him who said: "He who receiveth the least of these My
--
symbols of Flamel, of Basil Valentine, the pages of the Jew Abraham,
and the more or less apocryphal oracles of the Emerald Table of Hermes.
--
secrets of Abraham the Jew, of Flamel, and of Raymond Lully.
All these prodigies are accomplished by means of a single agent which
--
of the Sepher Yetzirah, commented by the alchemist Abraham (Amsterdam,
1642): {216}
--
Rabbi Abraham F.. D.. dicit:
Semita trigesima prima vocatur intelligentia perpetua: et illa ducit
--
be able to understand the thought of the Jew Abraham.
The secret fire of the masters of alchemy was, then, electricity; and
--
Abraham knew thee, Hermes divined thee, Pythagoras calculated thee,
Plato, in every dream of his genius, aspired to {289} thee; but only

Tablets of Baha u llah text, #Tablets of Baha u llah, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
Call thou to mind the days when He Who conversed with God tended, in the wilderness, the sheep of Jethro, His father-in-law. He hearkened unto the Voice of the Lord of mankind coming from the Burning Bush which had been raised above the Holy Land, exclaiming, 'O Moses! Verily I am God, thy Lord and the Lord of thy forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' He was so carried away by the captivating accent of the Voice that He detached Himself from the world and set out in the direction of Pharaoh and his people, invested with the power of thy Lord Who exerciseth sovereignty over all that hath been and shall be. The people of the world are now hearing that which Moses did hear, but they understand not.
Say, I swear by the righteousness of God! Ere long the pomp of the ministers of state and the ascendancy of the rulers shall pass away, the palaces of the potentates shall be laid waste and the imposing buildings of the emperors reduced to dust, but what shall endure is that which We have ordained for you in the Kingdom. It behooveth you, O people, to make the utmost endeavor that your names may be mentioned before the Throne and ye may bring forth that which will immortalize your memories throughout the eternity of God, the Lord of all being.

Talks 125-150, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Such statements appear contradictory, but still they are correct according to the viewpoint of the questioner. The Christ also declared that He was even before Abraham.
D.: What is the purpose of such descriptions in religions?

Talks 151-175, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: We see Abraham Lincoln who died long ago.
M.: Is there the object without the seer? The experiences may be real.

Talks 176-200, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Abraham was, I am. The teachings of the Sages are suited to the time, place, people and other surroundings.
The visitor said he was leaving with regret. ...

The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
quoted. Here is Abraham Tucker, an influential philosopher, writing
around 1750:
--
Abraham K., Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis, Hogarth Press, 483 (Weeping
in women as unconscious wish to urinate like a man.), 1954

The Book of Certitude - P1, #The Book of Certitude, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
Later, the beauty of the countenance of the Friend of God 1 appeared from behind the veil, and another standard of divine guidance was hoisted. He invited the people of the earth to the light of righteousness. The more passionately He exhorted them, the fiercer waxed the envy and waywardness of the people, except those who wholly detached themselves from all save God, and ascended on the wings of certainty to the station which God hath exalted beyond the comprehension of men. It is well known what a host of enemies besieged Him, until at last the fires of envy and rebellion were kindled against Him. And after the episode of the fire came to pass, He, the lamp of God amongst men, was, as recorded in all books and chronicles, expelled from His city. 1. Abraham. [Abraham] Some Answered Questions, p. 12
11
--
Among the Prophets was Abraham, the Friend of God. Ere He manifested Himself, Nimrod dreamed a dream. Thereupon, he summoned the soothsayers, who informed him of the rise of a star in the heaven. Likewise, there appeared a herald who announced throughout the land the coming of Abraham. [Abraham] Some Answered Questions, p. 12
63

The Book of Joshua, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
5 I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. 6 And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea. 7 And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season. 8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: 10 But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. 11 And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand. 12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
22 Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob,
Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
--
8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof,
--
2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden,
--
16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not:
thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

The Book of the Prophet Micah, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

The Dwellings of the Philosophers, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
approximately twelve-thirty after midnight. Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of
Philosophers and of Savants. Certainty, Certainty, Feeling, Joy, peace".
--
Abraham the Jew) in the kidneys, entrails, and from the operations of the four elements. They
are the humidity of metals, Sulphur, and Quicksilver, not the common ones which are sold by
--
virtue, and its purpose. The famous manuscript of Abraham the Jew, of which Flamel takes
with him a copy of the images, is a work of the same nature and similar quality. Thus fiction,
--
to believe in the reality of the Book of Abraham the Jew, nor in what its fortunate owner
relates in his Figures Hieroglyphiques. In our opinion, this famous manuscript, as unknown as
--
The legendary work of Abraham is only known to us by the description which Nicolas Flamel
left in his famous treatise (27) . Our bibliographical documentation is limited to this sole
--
Abraham are seen here and there on the market. These books, in very small number, have no
relationship among themselves, and are spread over a few private libraries. The ones that we
--
bibliophiles. The quasi-certainty of the reality of the book attri buted to Abraham the Jew.
"And so I, Nicolas Flamel, writer, thus after the death of my parents, earned my living in the
--
Abraham was made out of steel rather than wood or ivory? It is for us an enigma as
indecipherable as this other: the legendary rabbi wrote in Latin a treatise dedicated to his
--
of everything when he acquired it. In fact, Abraham says he only want to reveal his secrets
so as to come to the help of the sons of Israel, persecuted at that same period when the future
--
And so, the great master Abraham, doctor and light of Israel, reveals himself, if we take him
literally, to be a bona fide mystifier and his work, fraudulently archaic, to have no
--
principle, origin, source, foundation. The Latin name Abraham, which the Bible gives to the
venerable ancestor of the Hebrews, means Father of a multitude. He is therefore the first
--
whose different specifications inhabit the three kingdoms of nature. The Book of Abraham is
consequently the Book of the Principle , and since this book is devoted, according to Flamel,
--
Pursuing his description, our writer believes the book of Abraham to be made of the rolled
bark of young shrubby trees, at least so it seemed to him. Flamel is not very assertive about
--
the book of Abraham the Jew, is indeed a golden book, and it is the famous little book of fine
gold of which Bernard de Trevisan speaks in his Parable. Further, it seems that Nicolas
--
found in a book authored by Abraham the Jew".
(31) Introitus apertus ad oclusum Ragis palatium, op cit.
--
the composition of the hieroglyphic book of Abraham the Jew, Flamel tells us, of three times
seven leaves. Likewise, a splendid illuminated manuscript, made at the beginning of the 18th

The Egg, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The story is about the main character, who is "you" (in the second person), and God, who is "me" (in the first person). "You", a 48-year-old man who dies in a car crash, meets the narrator, who says that "you" have been reincarnated many times before, and that "you" are next to be reincarnated as a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD. God then explains that "you" are, in fact constantly reincarnated across time, and that all human beings who have ever lived and will ever live are incarnations of "you". "You" remark about being Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler and Jesus, and God adds that "you" were also once John Wilkes Booth, every Holocaust victim and every person who followed Jesus. God explains that in fact there are other Godlike beings elsewhere, and that "you" too will one day become a God. The entire universe was created as an egg for the main character (all of humanity), and once "you" have lived every human life ever, "you" will be born as a God. The reason God created the universe was for the main character, "you," to understand this point: "Every time you victimized someone...you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you've done, you've done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you."
------------------
--
"I'm Abraham Lincoln?"
"And you're John Wilkes Booth, too," I added.

The Epistle of James, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
18 But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without works; and I will shew thee, by works, my faith. 19 Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble. 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou, that faith did co-operate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect?
23 And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God,
and it was reputed to him to justice,

the Eternal Wisdom, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
2) All is in the One in power and the One is in all in act. ~ Abraham-ibn-Ezra
3) The Essence of all things is one and identical. ~ Aswaghosha

The First Epistle of Peter, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
1 In like manner also let wives be subject to their husbands: that if any believe not the word, they may be won without the word, by the conversation of the wives. 2 Considering your chaste conversation with fear. 3 Whose adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel: 4 But the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptibility of a quiet and a meek spirit, which is rich in the sight of God. 5 For after this manner heretofore the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: 6 As Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters you are, doing well, and not fearing any disturbance.
Advice for Husbands

The Gospel According to John, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
The Gospel of John calls Jesus the Messiah - - which means Christ or Anointed One in 1:41 and 4:25. The Gospel is noteworthy for "I am" - - sayings of Jesus that reveal his identity. In Exodus 3:14, God refers to himself as "I am who am." In the Gospel of John, Jesus identifies himself with God the Father: "Before Abraham came into being, I am" (8:58). The Gospel also relates seven "I am" sayings of Jesus associated with an image: 'I am the Bread of Life' (6:35), the 'Light of the World' (8:12), 'the Gate for the sheep' (10:7), the 'Good Shepherd' (10:11), the 'Resurrection and the Life' (11:25), the 'Way, the Truth, and the Life' (14:6), and the 'True Vine' (15:1).
Jesus in the Gospel reveals the mystery and relationships of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called by the Church Fathers the Holy Trinity.
--
33 They answered him, We be Abrahams seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? 34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 37 I know that ye are Abrahams seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abrahams children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41 Ye do the deeds of your father.
Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth Gods words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
--
52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The Gospel According to Luke, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
50 And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, 52 he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever." 56 And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.
The Birth of John
--
for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, 74 to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. 76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.
--
7 He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
10 And the multitudes asked him, "What then shall we do?" 11 And he answered them, "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you." 14 Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages." 15 As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ,
--
23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Mat that, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Mat that, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
CHAPTER 4
--
10 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. 12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. 13 And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. 15 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? 16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? 17 And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
Two Parables
--
28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
31 The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. 32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
--
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things:
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
--
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
CHAPTER 17
--
19 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today. 6 So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it they all murmured, He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold. 9 And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.
The Parable of the Ten Gold Coins
--
34 And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him. 39 And some of the scribes answered, Teacher, you have spoken well. 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
41 But he said to them, How can they say that the Christ is Davids son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, 43 till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet. 44 David thus calls him Lord; so how is he his son?

The Gospel According to Mark, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
`I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27 "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken."
The Greatest Commandment

The Gospel According to Matthew, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
The Gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham (1:1). Matthew names five women in the Genealogy: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba), and Mary, the mother of Jesus. The genealogy regularly notes the male who fathers a child, but Matthew delivers an exact statement when he reaches Joseph, "the husb and of Mary, of whom Jesus was born" (1:16). The relative pronoun "of whom" in Greek is , which clearly refers to Mary, for it is specific to the feminine gender! And the passive voice of the verb - "was born" - is the only passive among the forty occurrences of in the genealogy, which prepares the way for the divine conception and natural birth of Jesus Christ in 2:1.
St. Matthew records five major speeches of Christ Jesus: the Sermon on the Mount (5-7); the Missionary Sermon to the Apostles (10); the Parables of the Kingdom (13); the Discourse on Life in the early Christian community the Church (18); and his eschatological speech on the End Times (24-25). Upon Peter's statement "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus designates the Apostle Simon Peter to lead his Church (Matthew 16:15-19). The name Peter or in 16:18 is the same as the word for rock - kepha in Aramaic or in Greek. The 'keys to the kingdom of heaven' in 16:19 recalls Isaiah 22:20-25 and indicates the rite of succession to the Steward of the Kingdom.
--
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa, 8 and Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husb and of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
The Birth of Jesus
--
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit that befits repentance, 9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
The Baptism of Jesus
--
5 As he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him 6 and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress." 7 And he said to him, "I will come and heal him." 8 But the centurion answered him, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes, and to another, `Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." 10 When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; be it done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment.
The Cure of Peter's Mother-in-Law
--
23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, 24 saying, "Teacher, Moses said, `If a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.' 25 Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her." 29 But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living." 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment

The Letter to the Hebrews, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
14 Therefore because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner hath been partaker of the same: that, through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil: 15 And might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude. 16 For nowhere doth he take hold of the angels: but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold.
17 Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren,
--
God's Promise to Abraham is Unchangeable
13 For God making promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom he might swear, swore by himself, 14 Saying: Unless blessing I shall bless thee, and multiplying I shall multiply thee. 15 And so patiently enduring he obtained the promise. 16 For men swear by one greater than themselves: and an oath for confirmation is the end of all their controversy. 17 Wherein God, meaning more abundantly to shew to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed an oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have the strongest comfort, who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope set before us. 19 Which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, and which entereth in even within the veil; 20 Where the forerunner Jesus is entered for us, made a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.
CHAPTER 7
--
1 For this Melchisedech was king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him: 2 To whom also Abraham divided the tithes of all: who first indeed by interpretation, is king of justice: and then also king of Salem, that is, king of peace: 3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, continueth a priest for ever.
4 Now consider how great this man is, to whom also Abraham the patriarch gave tithes out of the principal things. 5 And indeed they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is to say, of their brethren: though they themselves also came out of the loins of Abraham. 6 But he, whose pedigree is not numbered among them, received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. 7 And without all contradiction, that which is less, is blessed by the better. 8 And here indeed, men that die, receive thithes: but there he hath witness, that he liveth. 9 And (as it may be said) even Levi who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham: 10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedech met him.
11 If then perfection was by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchisedech, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being translated, it is necessary that a translation also be made of the law. 13 For he, of whom these things are spoken, is of another tribe, of which no one attended on the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord sprung out of Juda: in which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. 15 And it is yet far more evident: if according to the similitude of Melchisedech there ariseth another priest, 16 Who is made not according to the law of a carnal commandment, but according to the power of an indissoluble life:
--
8 By faith he that is called Abraham, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he abode in the land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise. 10 For he looked for a city that hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God. 11 By faith also Sara herself, being barren, received strength to conceive seed, even past the time of age; because she believed that he was faithful who had promised, 12 For which cause there sprung even from one (and him as good as dead) as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
13 All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off,
--
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son; 18 (To whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called.) 19 Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Whereupon also he received him for a parable. 20 By faith also of things to come, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and adored the top of his rod. 22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the going out of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents; because they saw he was a comely babe, and they feared not the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, denied himself to be the son of Pharao's daughter; 25 Rather choosing to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have the pleasure of sin for a time, 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians. For he looked unto the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the fierceness of the king: for he endured as seeing him that is invisible. 28 By faith he celebrated the pasch, and the shedding of the blood; that he, who destroyed the firstborn, might not touch them. 29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by dry land: which the Egyptians attempting, were swallowed up. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, by the going round them seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with the unbelievers, receiving the spies with peace.

The Pilgrims Progress, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
{252} HOLD-THE-WORLD. Ay, and hold you there still, good Mr. By-ends; for, for my part, I can count him but a fool, that, having the liberty to keep what he has, shall be so unwise as to lose it. Let us be wise as serpents; it is best to make hay when the sun shines; you see how the bee lieth still all winter, and bestirs her only when she can have profit with pleasure. God sends sometimes rain, and sometimes sunshine; if they be such fools to go through the first, yet let us be content to take fair weather along with us. For my part, I like that religion best that will stand with the security of God's good blessings unto us; for who can imagine, that is ruled by his reason, since God has bestowed upon us the good things of this life, but that he would have us keep them for his sake? Abraham and Solomon grew rich in religion. And Job says, that a good man shall lay up gold as dust. But he must not be such as the men before us, if they be as you have described them.
SAVE-ALL. I think that we are all agreed in this matter, and therefore there needs no more words about it.
--
DEMAS. Yes, my name is Demas; I am the son of Abraham.
CHR. I know you; Gehazi was your great-grandfather, and Judas your father; and you have trod in their steps. [2 Kings 5:20, Matt. 26:14,15, 27:1-5] It is but a devilish prank that thou usest; thy father was hanged for a traitor, and thou deservest no better reward. Assure thyself, that when we come to the King, we will do him word of this thy behaviour. Thus they went their way.
--
{395} The talk they had with the Shining Ones was about the glory of the place; who told them that the beauty and glory of it was inexpressible. There, said they, is the Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. [Heb. 12:22-24] You are going now, said they, to the paradise of God, wherein you shall see the tree of life, and eat of the never-fading fruits thereof; and when you come there, you shall have white robes given you, and your walk and talk shall be every day with the King, even all the days of eternity. [Rev. 2:7, 3:4, 21:4,5] There you shall not see again such things as you saw when you were in the lower region upon the earth, to wit, sorrow, sickness, affliction, and death, for the former things are passed away. You are now going to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, and to the prophets--men that God hath taken away from the evil to come, and that are now resting upon their beds, each one walking in his righteousness. [Isa. 57:1,2, 65:17] The men then asked, What must we do in the holy place? To whom it was answered, You must there receive the comforts of all your toil, and have joy for all your sorrow; you must reap what you have sown, even the fruit of all your prayers, and tears, and sufferings for the King by the way. [Gal. 6:7] In that place you must wear crowns of gold, and enjoy the perpetual sight and vision of the Holy One, for there you shall see him as he is. [1 John 3:2] There also you shall serve him continually with praise, with shouting, and thanksgiving, whom you desired to serve in the world, though with much difficulty, because of the infirmity of your flesh. There your eyes shall be delighted with seeing, and your ears with hearing the pleasant voice of the Mighty One. There you shall enjoy your friends again that are gone thither before you; and there you shall with joy receive, even every one that follows into the holy place after you. There also shall you be clothed with glory and majesty, and put into an equipage fit to ride out with the King of Glory. When he shall come with sound of trumpet in the clouds, as upon the wings of the wind, you shall come with him; and when he shall sit upon the throne of judgment; you shall sit by him; yea, and when he shall pass sentence upon all the workers of iniquity, let them be angels or men, you also shall have a voice in that judgment, because they were his and your enemies. [1 Thes. 4:13-16, Jude 1:14, Dan. 7:9,10, 1 Cor. 6:2,3] Also, when he shall again return to the city, you shall go too, with sound of trumpet, and be ever with him.
{396} Now while they were thus drawing towards the gate, behold a company of the heavenly host came out to meet them; to whom it was said, by the other two Shining Ones, These are the men that have loved our Lord when they were in the world, and that have left all for his holy name; and he hath sent us to fetch them, and we have brought them thus far on their desired journey, that they may go in and look their Redeemer in the face with joy. Then the heavenly host gave a great shout, saying, "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." [Rev. 19:9] There came out also at this time to meet them, several of the King's trumpeters, clothed in white and shining raiment, who, with melodious noises, and loud, made even the heavens to echo with their sound. These trumpeters saluted Christian and his fellow with ten thousand welcomes from the world; and this they did with shouting, and sound of trumpet.

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